Sauder Edge Water Executive Desk, Chalked Chestnut

It was what I expected.

I bought this desk together with 2 of the 5 shelf bookcases. The bookcases were simple and quick to assemble but this desk was a much bigger event. It took the better half of an afternoon. The instructions are decent, but not quite as clear as the instructions for the bookcase. The hardware essentially comes sealed inside little bubbles – like bubble wrap – and some of the parts were grouped together in an illogical manner. Small individual bags with easier to read labels would have made things easier. But I got it done and the desk is pretty decent. It seems quite sturdy considering it’s just particle board (think IKEA). I would recommend it but definitely carve out some serious time for assembly. It was more complicated than I expected.

Overall, I am happy with the desk, so I’m giving it a thumbs up and recommending it. However, there are a few things that are not as perfect as they should be with the desk.

By default, the modesty/privacy panel is as tall as the side cabinets. When sitting at the desk, if I straightened my legs, I would hit it, and that meant my legs could not fully extend (I am 180 cm tall – 5’9”). So, I cut 22 cm off the bottom of the privacy panel (I reattached the decorative bottom trim on the inside since my desk sits against a wall). Now when I stretch my legs out, I’m not hitting the panel.

The drawers are shallower than you’d expect; they’re only 37 cm deep. My old IKEA desk was smaller, yet it still managed to have drawers that were 44 cm deep. And my wife’s 30-year-old desk is the exact same dimensions as this desk, yet it has 60 cm deep drawers. There is an extra 20 cm of empty space inside the cabinets of this desk, so they could have made the drawers deeper.

I am loving this desk. I recently took a work from home underwriting job so i needed a desk that provided enough room for two large monitors, a docking station for my laptop, and still enough room to spread out documents to review and this desk is perfect. Luckily my laptop is small enough that my docking station and laptop fit perfectly and conveniently in the keyboard tray so thats not even visible to the eye. I prefer to havd my keyboard above. It seems very sturdy and it is very sharp looking. Unfortunately if i ever move i will not be able to get it out of my downstairs office in one piece, i will have to take it apart. But thats fine. I put it together myself, instructions were clear. I was misding some screws, but luckily there were other extras that were included so i made them work. It took me a good 4 hours to put together the main parts of the desk, with a few breaks inbetween. Then another hour or so the next day to finish and install the drawers. There were a few marks on a few pieces but nothing major and a black sharpie fixed that no problem. The shipping seemed slower than it should have been (one week from ordering to received) and it was delivered by some random company id never heard of. The poor delivery guy was solo but still managed getting the 200lb box in my house. The box was wrapped in plastic that was covered in black filth, i waxnt too happy about having that sll over my floors but i got over it and got it ouside asap. He brought it in main kevel of my house, and i then just had to carry it in pieces downstairs. But it was well worth it. It looks great. I also purchased the matching file cabinet, whicj which also looks nice but it’s much wider (front to back) than the pictures make it look like. But its still solid. I bought locks to have installed on it but there is no lip on the top so i hsve to look into a different kind of lock.

I would highly recommend this desk!