If You Can’t Find a Desk for Your Small Home, You’re Not Looking In the Right Spot

Balancing a laptop on your knees while simultaneously paying bills, eating takeout, and watching The Bachelor works just fine, thank you—until you end up with a keyboard full of pad Thai. Which makes the idea of having a desk appealing—less balancing, more storage space—until you realize that a standard-size desk is around 60 inches long—or longer. Ain’t no one gone room for that in an itty-bitty apartment. What you do have room for: The Honey, I Shrunk the Kids version.

So if you like the style of this 64-inch-long steamer-trunk-inspired work space from Restoration Hardware:

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Richards’ Trunk Desk, from $2,095.

Consider this take—from the brand’s RH Baby & Child—instead.

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Wilkes Trunk Storage Desk, from $939.

The kid-size version has the same vibe, but it saves you 12 inches in length—without docking you in the desk-height department. (All of the meant-for-kids desks here have desktops that are 30 inches high—the same as a standard grown-up desk.) Bonus: You’ll also save more than $1,000.

Here’s another downs-sized desk upgrade. From this:

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Devon Campaign Desk from Pottery Barn, $639.

To this:

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Gemma Writing Desk and Hutch from Pottery Barn Kids. (That desk is sold out, but here’s a similar one from a different brand.)

The kids version is a more do-able at 40 inches long, compared with the original’s 48-inch length, but the pint-size desktop is just a quarter-inch lower than the desktop on the full-size desk.

Here are more petite desks that are just right for grown-ups.