9 best small desks for compact spaces

Best: Overall

Rating: 10/10

At just 85cm wide and 45cm deep, this compact desk is ideal if you’ve got less than a metre to fit your desk into but need a permanent solution. The proportions are perfect: it’s just deep enough to work at comfortably for long periods of time without squashing your legs against the wall, and wide enough to use a laptop or spread homework, paperwork, or crafts out without feeling too cramped.

Functionally, the desk works brilliantly – it has one good-sized drawer to hide all your stuff in, and a sleek black metal base with an open front to allow you to tuck a chair underneath. Factor in a contemporary aesthetic with rustic mango wood, and this simple desk really does do everything beautifully, at a very reasonable price.

Best: Wall-mounted desk

Rating: 9/10

We love this clever space-saving desk from Dunelm. As it’s wall-mounted, you don’t need to sacrifice any floor space – making it a brilliant solution for a tiny bedroom, or a multifunctional room where you won’t be using the desk all the time. It fixes to the wall easily, and you can choose the right height for you. We set ours up in a child’s bedroom and liked the fact we could hang it a little lower than a standard desk height for her.

The curved ply frame gives it a cool retro look and we particularly like the corkboard backing – you can pin photos, receipts, and tickets up, but it’s totally clutter-free when closed. There’s just enough depth to store a few essentials in too – our tester now keeps her tablet in there, so it doubles up as a handy bit of storage.

Best: Foldable desk

Rating: 8/10

If you’re looking for an occasional desk you can whip out at a moment’s notice, Habitat’s folding option is spot on. It folds totally flat, so you can stash it away behind a wardrobe or under a bed, then unfold it when you need to get some work done or you’ve got an extra guest in your home office for the day.

The desk is 62cm deep and 86cm wide, which we found big enough for working at a laptop with a mouse mat and paperwork. It’s ready to go out of the box, which is always a bonus, and nice and sturdy once it’s unfolded. Our only quibble is the bar across the bottom, which makes positioning a swivel chair quite tricky as you can’t tuck in underneath the desk.

Best: Multifunctional desk

Rating: 9/10

Prepare to never buy a normal coffee table again. When you need a desk, just pop the front section of this one up and it lifts to the perfect height to work on a laptop, get some homework done, or eat a cheeky Friday night dinner in front of the TV. It’s ideal if you don’t have an office or study and don’t fancy commandeering the kitchen table, and includes a good amount of storage.

We tested the oak effect coffee table desk, which works well with the black metal legs, although there’s also a light oak version available. The bulk of it is preassembled, so you’ll just need to attach the legs and figure out the mechanism to lift and close it, as it takes a bit of getting used to. Once you’ve got one of these you’ll wonder why every coffee table doesn’t transform into a desk in exactly the same way – it only lost a point because of the high price tag.

Best: Tray desk

Rating: 8/10

This real-wood desk is super simple: open out the beech legs, pop the solid oak tray on the top, and hey presto, you’ve got yourself the perfect perch. It’s a nice solution for a spot of alfresco emailing in the garden or a bit of work on your balcony, and you can hide it away when you’re done for the day.

The oak tray feels solid and heavy, with handles to make it easier to lift, and wooden supports to stop the legs from slipping underneath. It’s waxed and wipes clean well, so it doubles up as a little lunch table. Store it indoors and whip it out as soon as the sun makes an appearance: there must be some perks of working from home, after all.

Best: Luxury desk

Rating: 9/10

Our widest choice at 110cm, this grown-up console desk is a great option if you’ve got a bit more space to play with but don’t want your room to scream home office. With a rich rosewood frame, a hefty white marble top and smart brass details, it’s a luxurious and multifunctional bit of furniture that could easily disguise itself as an elegant dressing table in a bedroom, or a smart side table in a dining room.

At 45cm deep it’s slimmer than a full-sized desk, although the added width means there’s more of a substantial work surface than some of the more compact desks we tested. That makes it ideal if you’ll be using your desk regularly or have a bit more equipment, like a sewing machine or crafting supplies. Bear in mind it arrives in two very large, heavy boxes and there is some assembly required to attach the legs to the desk, although all the hardware and instructions are included.

Best: Console desk

Rating: 8/10

This console desk teams mid-century styling with compact proportions at a great price, so there’s an awful lot to love about it. We tested the oak-effect version – a light shade that works brilliantly with the Scandi-inspired splayed legs – and there’s also a white and a walnut-effect version available.

A compact depth of 39cm means this one gives you enough room to get a few hours of work done without encroaching on your space. Plus, at a metre wide it doubles up as a hallway console table, or an attractive table in any room of the house. We love the fact our laptop fits neatly in the cubby hole on one side, with a drawer to hide everything else out of sight on the other. Just bear in mind the desk arrives fully flat-packed so you’ll need to assemble it at home.

Best: Standing desk

Rating: 9/10

This is a genius bit of kit for anyone who works from home a lot. The portable sit/stand desk transforms wherever you’re working into the perfect height-adjustable workstation, and lets you alternate between sitting and standing throughout the day so you can stay active even when you’re working long hours.

Design-wise it’s really very clever. You fix your monitor to a post with a base, then attach a moveable work surface to the post. Simply pop your keyboard and mouse on the work surface, and when you want to stand up, give it a little nudge and everything glides up effortlessly thanks to a clever counterbalance mechanism. Admittedly, it took our tester around 45 minutes to set up with the help of some YouTube videos, but it’s incredibly simple to operate once it’s built. A nifty self-locking feature holds it in place at whatever height you want, and the 72cm x 73cm footprint doesn’t take up much space at all.

Best: Compact workstation

Rating: 8/10

If you’ve got a maximum budget but minimum space, treat yourself to this compact home office designed by renowned Swiss architect, Fritz Haller. Made up of modular components linked by circular metal connectors and tubes, it’s designed to be changed up and built on over time. Think of it as a set of very expensive building blocks and you’ve got the right idea.

The configuration we tested has three shelves, with a drop-down front door at the top that’s just the right height to use as a desk. The whole system is totally customisable though, so you can design your bespoke configuration to the spec you want – from the colour of the panels to the number of doors and shelves. Starting at around £1,000, this isn’t a cheap home office solution, but it’s considered a design classic for good reason.