Bedroom Layout Ideas With a Desk: 12 Ways To Design a Room With a Desk

You probably have lots of exciting design ideas for your bedroom (dark and moody Victorian or maybe airy boho retreat?). But have you considered how to make your workspace fit into the design? Desks are often thrown into the bedroom plan as a remote-work afterthought that can disrupt the flow of activity and rest. 

Some of you may do your best work with a laptop in bed, but for those times when you need a proper workstation, let’s look at layout ideas that let your desk work (ugh, puns) and your bedroom still be the restful retreat you need.

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‍Consider Furniture Size and Type

If you are working in your bedroom, you may wonder how you can make everything fit. Some bedrooms are gloriously large and accommodating, but for most of us, it takes strategic furniture placement and using pieces to scale.

Remember, your bed is probably your largest piece in your bedroom, carrying the most visual weight. This means that you’ll want to vary the weight of your desk to help keep the bed your focal point. The key here is to avoid having two pieces of furniture fighting over their own place to shine!

1. Balance Your Bed With a Small Desk

A smaller desk can still be functional and high quality. Mini desks have the same features as their larger counterparts, but they’re designed for a small desktop or laptop computer (not the behemoth home computers of yesteryear). For instance, sit-to-stand desks, renowned for supporting health, can vary body positioning and still come in petite sizes. 

2. Choose a Slim Chair Profile

Keep the profile of your existing bedroom furniture in mind when shopping for a desk chair. For instance, a low-backed molded Eames task chair might better blend with your sleek mid-century furniture than a tall gamer’s chair. If you want to forget about work in the evening, and your chair is low enough, you can push it out of sight under your desk, further decluttering your space.

Work With What You Have

Some aspects of your bedroom are fixed: you have multiple windows, at least two doors, and possibly an awkward alcove. Designing a bedroom around these features is challenging enough without including home office ideas for a practical workstation. However, it can be done.

3. Keep Symmetry of the Room in Mind

Typically, bedrooms are designed with symmetry in mind (a nightstand on each side of the bed, a chair on each side of the bay window, etc.). But with all of the windows and doors that you have to decorate around, it may be tricky to keep a symmetrical design in the mix. Spoak’s room visualization tool can help you get perspective on a space’s general layout to see the final product before you make a decision. 

Beds aren’t only physically heavy; they yield a visual weight (aka the ability to capture your attention) as well — you’ll want to design around this. If your room has a bed and two nightstands against one wall, it’s more pleasing to the eye to put a large piece, like a desk, on the opposite side of the room. Instead of pushing into a corner to “make space,” create symmetry when possible. 

4. Create a Desk With a View

What furniture will go against which wall is a common question in room decorating, especially when blank wall space can be at a premium. If you only have one sizable blank wall, you may want your bed there so that the headboard can command attention as the room's focal point. In this case, placing the desk beneath a window lets you absorb all that natural light and have a well-lit workspace. 

5. Build a Console Desk

Creating a long console that runs the length of the room under the windowsill with a pull-out desktop is a great option for fitting a desk into the layout. Your minimalist console desk space also creates a horizontal length that can balance out other vertical elements of the space. 

6. Use a Desk as a Nightstand

A petite desk can serve as a bedside table in a small bedroom when placed right beside the bed. Devices and a book can sit inside the drawer for easy bedtime access.

7. Reclaim a Corner Nook With Your Desk

Take a bedroom corner that has become a forgotten catch-all and turn it into an efficient workspace with a desk that’s sized just to fit in a small space. We know: We just went over symmetry and not necessarily pushing furniture into corners, but sometimes asymmetry works — especially in tight spaces. 

You may have an L-shaped corner desk that works well with existing cabinetry, or maybe you have an awkward alcove that would make a five-star office/reading nook. Add a slim live-edge wood desk in the niche with a couple of floating shelves that match above it. Tuck office materials into rattan baskets on the shelves for a clean, minimal look. Your corner now has a purpose and extra storage (plus a cool new look). 

8. Configure Your Desk with Existing Cabinets

If you have two bookshelves, slip your desk between them, creating a custom desktop to evoke a built-in look. Paint or stain the pieces in the same carefully-chosen color, and you’ve unified your office space while giving your room a custom feel. 

9. Let a Vintage Desk Do Double Duty 

There’s something about vintage desks that make them so hard to say goodbye to — and not just because some iconic Victorian desks weighed well over 500 pounds.

Bring new purpose to pieces from a bygone era by transforming them into multipurpose workspaces. In the morning, it can seat your laptop and notepad. Then, at nighttime, clear off the top to use it as a dressing table for a night out on the town. 

Choose a rolling velvet Queen Anne-type chair that is comfortable for long hours while still being plush and full of vintage charm. Pair it with a deeply functional, gorgeous piece like the Wooton Desk for that *just right* old-time feel. 

Maintain Your Zones With a Discreet Desk

Think of your bedroom design as one big space comprising several smaller zones, particularly the sleeping and work zones. Finding a floor plan that allows all these zones to work is possible if you don’t let the workroom bleed into the bedroom. Is anything worse than being awake for hours, wrestling with a work issue as the hours tick away? 

10. Hide Your Desk in a Closet 

Anything that helps create a mental divide between your workspace and bedroom space is worth it. A simple way to maintain the divide is to create a home office closet that is completely self-contained. You can use an existing small closet by tucking a desktop and wall-mounted shelves inside, but there are also office armoires that do the same thing. 

11. Make Space for a Desk With a Murphy Bed

Rather than “hiding” the office at night, hide your bed. Lift your bed out of sight with a Murphy bed! Make your Murphy bed serve double purposes by selecting a model that, when raised, has a desk and shelving built into the base and is ready for your laptop and desk chair.

12. Physically Divide the Room

Many shelving units come with various layout options to customize the shelves and their configuration between floor-to-ceiling support posts for a permeable wall between the bed and desk that lets light through while clearly defining your workspace. A floor-to-ceiling unit only requires a few DIY skills to attach to the ceiling and arrange the shelves.

Make Your Desk Work For Your Bedroom

Making a bedroom layout work around a desk is much easier when you don’t fight the constraints of the space but lean into them instead.

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^{Photo Credit: (Left) Matthew Williams}

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^Sources:

^{I unashamedly love working from bed. I wrote a book from under the covers | Business Insider}

^{Weekend Design: 11 Tips for a Successful Office/Bedroom Setup | Times of San Diego}

^{The Benefits of Using a Standing Desk | US News}

^{Antiques: Wooton Desks | The New York Times}

^{The Wooton Desk Is a Victorian Collectible | The Spruce Crafts}