Industrial Desk Ideas

We love this blog series of industrial office ideas.  It is giving a chance to revisit past installs.  No matter the size of your office, you will need a desk.  We are sharing industrial desk ideas to match your industrial style. 

Let’s start with common desk sizes.  For this example, we look at a true retro desk.  The Steelcase Tanker Desk.  This desk screams industrial.  It is 60” in length x 36” in depth & heavy metal.  In fact, it is so heavy one person cannot budge this desk.  One might say this desk is a tank. 

A straight desk like this works in an office with limited space or where lots of work surface is not needed.  It would be difficult to convert this desk to an L desk.  If you have the room, a credenza would be the easiest addition. 

Steelcase Tanker Desk

If you want the 40s vintage look, we created this desk from used file storage, new laminate desktops, and new wood maple shelves.  Since our neighbor, Grandview Top, was making the desk surface, we made desktops that fit the space vs. standard desk sizes.  In this install, the office space was a converted house.  The client needed to fit several desks in the space. 

Vintage Style Industrial Desk

Our next industrial desk ideas combine preowned storage, live wood edges, and new laminate work surfaces.  These desks work in private offices where the overheads can be functional and office art. 

We have done these in L shaped desks and U shaped desks.  With private offices becoming smaller, it is more common to see an L desk.  A common footprint of an L desk is a 72” x 30” desk and a 48” x 24” return.   These dimensions give you a 6’ wide by 6.5’ depth footprint. 

In this L desk, you can see the live edge maple from Urban Lumber.  Urban Lumber provides local lumber from trees that had to be cut down. The wood reflects this character. We utilized reclaimed cubicle overheads.  

L Shaped Industrial Desk

A U shaped desk is becoming more of the unicorn in corporations today.  With a larger footprint, you need at 12’ x 10’ office to comfortably fit a U shaped desk.  Typically, the desk is 72” x 36” with a bridge of 48” x 24” and a credenza of 72” x 24”.  You can shorten the bridge down to 42” for less chair movement.  The overall footprint is 9’ in depth and 6’ in width. For folks with the space of a U shaped desk, yay you!  We have several examples of U shaped desk with the live edge overheads.  The overhead location can be on the side or back depending on the layout of the room and window location. 

This U desk has a live edge walnut overhead. 

U Shaped Industrial Desk

Because we are using reclaimed cubicle overheads, we select wood with the dimensions that match the best. We select wood with an open mind versus a preconceived determination of the wood.  The next examples of cedar and pecan are examples of beautiful pieces that were not on our radar until we saw the wood. 

Rustic Industrial Desk

Custom U Shaped Desk

Since L desks are more common, we want to show more examples of industrial and rustic L shaped desks.  These L desks have clean lines with metal and wood. The contrast with a lighter wood desk top and the gray tones in the metal is sharp.  We love the compliment of a caramel office chair.

For storage of these desks, you could select solid metal storage.   Instead, we refaced the fronts of some metal storage with plywood.    Shown in the natural finish, we could stain to match the finish of your choice. 

Industrial Office Files

Last, we have the install of these modern industrial U shaped desks.  Painted pipe legs were used for the support with new laminate tops, pre-owned storage, and custom fabric pinboards.  On the reclaimed cubicle overhead, the top row was painted white. The bottom row of overhead storage was wrapped with graphics selected by the client’s interior designer. 

As we complete more installs, we will share more industrial desk ideas!