BH | Studio Étretat Curved 6-Drawer Desk

Long before the pedestal desk filled English libraries, French cabinetmakers of Louis XIV's reign were building writing tables over two banks of drawers with room for the knees between, the form later known as the bureau Mazarin. The same arrangement became the standard desk of the English library in the eighteenth century, and its logic has never been bettered: everything you need sits in drawers on either side of where you work.

This one is a 55-inch desk on two curved pedestals, each with three drawers: two shallower drawers above and a deep one below, one of them a filing drawer for papers and folders. Between the pedestals a keyboard tray slides out from under the top and back again, so the work surface stays clear for writing, notebooks and a lamp. The drawer fronts and pedestal corners are softly rounded and the bases rest on shaped plinths, giving the whole desk a gentle, sculptural look, with wood grain in Almond or Hazel over sturdy engineered wood. Assembly is required.

Set it in a home office or spare room as a full working desk for a laptop and monitor, or in a bedroom as a dressing table, with a mirror above and makeup and brushes in the drawers. It suits a bright, airy study: add a cane or bouclé chair, a brass task lamp, a pinboard and a ceramic pot of pens, against white walls with a botanical print. This listing is for one desk.