A New Work Desk

I’ve had a rather largish work table for many years. Definitely over a decade. Large workspaces are nice, but the problem is that we don’t have much manoeuvring space in the tight corner we’ve designated our study/work area. We needed to downsize this work desk. We finally got around to doing it.

This is the Micke system from IKEA. It’s much shallower than the table I previously had. Deep desks were useful in the past because of the space occupied by large CRT monitors. Nowadays, ultra-thin LCD monitors and notebooks are the norm, so shallower desks work well.

A nice feature of this Micke desk is the cable outlet at the back and hidden cable tray under the desk. This way, I can keep power bars, power adapters, and loose cable hidden in the tray, leaving the table top relatively clutter free.

The side storage of the table has adjustable shelves inside. You can remove the shelves completely to put a desktop computer chassis inside. The back of the side storage is open, and the front door has a gap at the top, so there’s some ventilation.

The Micke system has another nice item: a desk with printer storage. The printer storage is a roll-out shelving beneath the desk. It sits on castors, not attached to fixed rails. This means you can completely pull out the storage shelf and move it away from the desk entirely.

I like this a lot because the printer, then, doesn’t have to take up valuable table top space. For most people, the printer (even multifunction all-in-ones) is not something used regularly. You may just use like once or twice in a week. Yet, it may be too troublesome to keep the printer away in a cupboard or storeroom.

This roll-out printer storage is mighty convenient. Pull out to use the printer, and when done, push back in. There’s additional storage space underneath to store other things.  It’s divided into two halves, each big enough to hold files and reams of paper.

The Micke desk with printer storage seems to be running out, and it’s on discount ($85, down from $115) too. So if you’re interested to get it, do it fast.