Kitchen Desks: Tips For What To Do With Them

Having a built-in desk in your kitchen seems to be a "grass is always greener" kind of thing. The closet thing that I have to a desk is this spot at the far end of our kitchen with shallow cabinetry and a butcher block countertop. It's the spot where we end up piling unread mail and keeping our family charging station and (when I finally get around to it..) it will eventually house a little coffee bar.
But it's certainly not a spot to sit down to go through the mail and pay bills or do a quick look-up on the laptop and I'd love to have a kitchen desk for that.

So I would think that people with kitchen desks would love them and use them all of the time but most of my friends who have them don't use their desk for anything other than a spot where mail and clutter collects. I recently got an email from a reader, Susan, who wrote asking for some advice on the common problem of what to do with that tricky kitchen desk area:


Here's a pic of Susan's desk nook area that she graciously allowed me to share:
So how can you turn your dust-collecting kitchen desk into a more functional, usable space? 

1. Get a desk chair. Because the truth is that you'll never actually use the desk as a desk unless you have a chair. And don't just buy any old chair - get one that you love and that adds style and personality to your kitchen. Unlike when you're buying chairs for a dining table, you only need a single chair for a desk so now is the time to get that chair that you've always loved but couldn't afford if you needed 4 or 6 of them. And pay attention to how the back of the chair looks since that's the side that you'll see the most:

Style at Home

Often you can find the perfect chair on Craigslist or flea markets but if you strike out there, these are a few of the chairs that I've been eyeing that would look great at a kitchen desk:

1. World Market's Natural Bowen Wishbone Chair 2. Serena & Lily's Riviera Side Chair  3. West Elm's Saddle Office Chair 4. Anthropologie's Suzani Terai Folding Chair 5. Serena & Lily's Chevron Riviera Side Chair 6. Ballard Designs' Macau Armchair

Just make sure that if you choose a chair with arms, you measure your chair and desk to make sure the arms will fit underneath your desk so that the chair can be pushed all of the way in and not disrupt the flow of traffic in the kitchen. If there is an issue with very little space in front of the desk, you could also choose an x-bench or low stool that can be tucked completely underneath.

2. Add a large bulletin board to the wall above the desk. Bulletin boards are fairly easy and inexpensive to make in a customized size and can be left as plain cork:

Houzz - Durso Construction Management

or covered with fabric and (if you want to get fancy) nailhead trim:

Houzz - Kitchen Studio of Glen Ellyn

Andrew Howard Interior Design