How to choose an executive desk: the seven things that actually matter

An executive desk is one of the few pieces of furniture you will look at for eight hours a day, and most people choose one from a photo. The photo tells you almost nothing that matters. Here are the seven things that do, in the order worth checking them.

1. Width, measured against the wall. Measure the wall the desk will sit against and the clear depth in front of it, up to the door swing or the walkway, in millimetres. 1800 mm suits most studies, 2000 mm gives room for paper as well as screens, and 2400 mm needs a room that can carry it. If the wall lands between sizes, a desk built to measure beats one that nearly fits.

2. Depth. This is the number people forget. Around 750 mm is comfortable for a laptop and one screen; if you run two large monitors, 800 mm lets you sit them at a sensible distance without pushing the keyboard into your lap. Too shallow and the screens end up too close; you notice it in your eyes by the afternoon.

3. Top thickness and weight rating. A thicker top resists sag across a long span and feels solid under your forearms. Look for a stated weight capacity rather than an adjective. Monitors, arms, a printer and a person leaning on it add up faster than you think.

4. What it is actually made of. Most desks at this price are engineered board with a finish, not solid timber, and that is fine: good engineered board stays flat and does not move with the seasons the way solid timber can. What is not fine is a listing that hides it behind a phrase like "premium hardwood construction". Ask for the board grade. E1 is a low-emission grade and worth asking for by name.

5. Where the cables go. A tray along the back, a channel through the base, a bay for the power board. If the desk has nowhere for the cables to live, they will live on the floor, in shot on every video call. Solving cables at the desk is far easier than solving them afterwards.

6. Light. A desk with built-in lighting changes how the room looks on camera and in the evening, and removes one lamp and one cable from the surface. If a desk lists LED lighting, check whether it is included or an add-on, and whether it is dimmable.

7. Delivery into the room. Large desks arrive in several heavy cartons. Ask how many, whether delivery is to the kerb or into the room, and whether someone assembles it and takes the packaging away. A beautiful desk that sits in its boxes in the hallway for a fortnight is a bad purchase.

Then the dull, important part: the guarantee, what it covers and for how long, and the returns window for standard sizes. A company that states those plainly on the product page is usually one that expects to honour them.