Most desks make you choose between looking right in a living room and actually working. This one does both: a painted farmhouse frame under a contrasting weathered natural wood top, with the power center hidden inside the desktop rather than bolted to the back.

Lift the flip-up panel and you have two AC outlets plus USB, so the laptop charger, the lamp and the phone all live on the desk instead of trailing down to the baseboard. Two drawers hold the paper and the cables, and they are built with dovetail joints front and back on full-extension ball-bearing glides, so they still run true after a few thousand openings. Choose Cotton, Dove or Denim to suit the room. At five feet wide it works on a landing, a window wall or a spare bedroom without taking the whole room over.