Fold Down Desk with a Storage Cabinet 700mm in Solid Ash

The desk folds up into a shallow cabinet with the pens, the laptop and the paperwork still inside it, which is the only way a working corner ever actually gets tidied. Fixes to the wall with four screws.

A folding piece earns its place only if folding it is quick enough that you actually do it. Every mechanism here has been chosen on that basis rather than on how clever it is. Gas struts where a hinge would be heavy, friction stays where a lock would need two hands, and a positive stop at both ends of the travel so nothing drops the last centimetre and marks the wall. If it takes more than five seconds, people leave it open, and then they have bought a piece of furniture that is permanently the size they were trying to avoid.

Specification

• Dimensions: 700mm wide by 450mm deep open, 120mm deep folded, 740mm high
• Floor footprint: 0.08 square metres folded
• Material: solid English ash, pale and straight grained, finished in hardwax oil
• Finish: hardwax oiled or sprayed, hardware in your chosen finish
• Capacity: 60kg evenly distributed on the open top
• Assembly: flat packed, about 45 minutes
• Getting it in: Flat packed in 1 carton, largest 760mm by 780mm by 160mm. Through a standard 762mm door: on its side, yes. Into a small lift: yes
• Weight: approximately 39.5 kilograms
• Height: 740mm, or specify 720mm or 760mm at no extra charge
• Mechanism: friction stays, one hand, positive stop at both ends
• Folding time: about three seconds, which is why people actually do it
• Cable notch in the back edge with a removable cover
• Wall fixing: four M8 anchors, kit and making good kit supplied

What you get

• The desk, flat packed
• Friction stays and catches, pre fitted
• Hardware in your chosen finish
• Wall fixing kit and a making good kit
• Hex key, spanner and printed instructions

Assembly

Flat packed, with a hex key, a spanner and printed instructions in the box. Fittings are cam locks and threaded steel inserts rather than chipboard screws, which is what lets a piece be taken apart and reassembled without the joints going loose. We reckon on three moves and have tested to ten.

If you are renting

This one does need a wall fixing, and we would rather say so on the product page than in the instructions. It is two screws. If drilling is out of the question, the freestanding version of this piece is listed alongside it and does the same job with a slightly larger footprint.