If you need more working surface, choose an L shaped desk. If you need somewhere to put things away and your room is tight, choose a computer desk with drawers. That is the simplest way to decide, and it holds true for most UK home offices. An L shaped desk spreads across two walls and gives you a large, continuous worktop. A desk with drawers keeps a straighter, more compact footprint and builds storage into the frame.
Our L shaped corner computer desks UK show how much extra surface a corner layout can add, while the wider home office furniture UK sale collection includes straight desks with integrated drawers and matching storage.
Before thinking about the room, think about a typical working day. Do you sit at one screen and type, or do you move between a laptop, a monitor, printed documents and a notebook? People who work across several tasks at once tend to appreciate the extra reach of an L shape. You can keep the computer on one return and a writing area on the other, turning in your chair rather than shuffling papers around a keyboard.
If your work is mostly screen based and you value a clear surface, a straight desk with drawers often suits better. Pens, chargers, notepads and files have a home, and the desktop stays uncluttered. That matters more than many people expect, particularly when the office is also a guest room or a corner of the living room.
The trade off is floor area. Even a compact L shaped desk usually needs a corner of around 120cm by 120cm, and larger designs reach 160cm or more on the long side. It also commits you to a corner, so you have less freedom to rearrange the room later.
The compromise here is surface area. Drawers can also reduce legroom on one side, so check the knee space before you commit, especially if you are tall or like to sit with your legs crossed.
Room shape often settles the debate. A square box room with a free corner and no radiator in the way is a natural home for an L shape. A long, narrow room, or one where both corners are taken by a door and a window, usually works better with a straight desk.
Check the following before you choose:
If an L shape fits but only just, it can make a room feel enclosed. A straight desk that leaves open floor often feels more comfortable to spend eight hours in, even if the worktop is smaller.
Depth is easy to overlook. Most desks are 50cm to 80cm deep. If you use a monitor, around 60cm to 70cm lets you sit at a comfortable viewing distance. On an L shaped desk, the inner corner can be deep, which is good for a large monitor but can make items at the back hard to reach.
With drawers, measure the clear width between the drawer unit and the opposite leg. You want enough space for your knees and for the chair base to slide in. A gap of at least 60cm is a sensible minimum for most people.
Not all drawers are equal. Look for smooth runners that extend far enough to reach the back of the drawer, and handles or push to open fronts that suit the way you work. A shallow top drawer is useful for pens and cables. Deeper drawers below can take files or a printer paper supply.
Be honest about how much you need to store. If you only keep a few notebooks and a charger, one or two drawers will do. If you handle paper files regularly, a straight desk with a drawer column, or a separate pedestal, will serve you better than relying on the desktop.
You do not always have to choose one or the other. Many people pair an L shaped desk with a mobile pedestal that slides underneath. Our office pedestal drawers UK are designed to tuck beneath most desks and roll out when you need them.
Alternatively, some corner desks include built in drawers on one return. These combine surface and storage, though they tend to be larger. If you prefer a straight layout, a long desk with drawers at one end and a clear section at the other gives something close to the zoning of an L shape without committing to a corner. Browse our modern computer desks UK for straight designs with integrated storage.
It helps to picture an ordinary working week. With an L shaped desk, you might keep the monitor and keyboard on the main run and use the return for a printer, a document tray or simply clear space for reading. When a call comes in, you swivel to face the camera on one side and keep notes open on the other. The desk adapts to the task rather than the other way round.
The risk is that the extra surface fills up. Large worktops attract piles of post, chargers and half finished projects, and without drawers there is nowhere to tidy them away. If you know you tend to spread out, plan some storage alongside an L shaped desk from the start, even if it is just a shelf above or a small cabinet beside it.
With a desk with drawers, the routine is different. The surface is smaller, so you naturally keep fewer things on it. At the end of the day, the laptop, notebook and pens go into the drawers and the desk looks like a piece of furniture rather than a workstation. In a guest room or a living room, that ability to switch off visually is often the deciding factor.
If the desk sits in a bedroom, think about how it will look from the bed and the door. An L shape tends to read as office furniture, which some people find makes it harder to relax in the evening. A straight desk with drawers can pass as a dressing table or console when cleared, which helps a dual purpose room feel more like a bedroom.
In a living room, scale and finish matter. A compact desk with drawers placed in an alcove or behind a sofa blends in more easily than a corner desk, which needs a dedicated corner and can interrupt the flow of the room. If two people share the office, however, a larger L shape can give each person a distinct side without the cost and space of two separate desks.
Consider how long you expect to stay in your current home and whether your work might change. A straight desk with drawers is easier to move to a different room or a new house, because it only needs one clear wall. An L shaped desk relies on a suitable corner, and not every room has one. Some corner desks can be assembled with the return on either side, which gives more flexibility if you move later, so check whether the design is reversible.
Large L shaped desks can look heavy in a small room, so lighter finishes such as white, pale oak or glass help them recede. A desk with drawers sits closer to a piece of cabinet furniture, so it is worth matching it to existing bedroom or living room pieces if it shares a room.
Desk surfaces take a lot of daily wear from keyboards, mugs and elbows. If durability is a priority, our article on how desk finishes hold up in UK homes looks at how different surfaces respond to everyday use.
Ask yourself three things. First, do you regularly use more than one screen or work with paper alongside the computer? Second, do you have a free corner with room to spare? Third, do you need to hide away your work at the end of the day? Two yes answers to the first pair point to an L shaped desk. A yes to the third, or a no to the second, points to a desk with drawers.
Whichever direction you take, Furniture in Fashion offers corner desks, straight desks and storage in a range of finishes, with free delivery to most UK mainland postcodes.
It can be, if the room has a free corner and the desk is compact. In very narrow rooms or rooms where corners are occupied by doors or windows, a straight desk usually feels less cramped.
Compact designs typically need a corner of around 120cm by 120cm, plus roughly 90cm of clear space behind the seat for the chair.
They can on one side. Measure the gap between the drawer unit and the opposite leg and look for at least 60cm of clear knee space.
Yes. A mobile pedestal that slides under the desk is the easiest way to add storage without changing the desk itself.
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