Home office
A cane-back chair is the cheapest way to make a desk look considered
Solid-back office chairs make a room feel like an office. Woven cane does the opposite, and costs less.
The fastest way to stop a home office looking like an office is to remove the office chair. A cane-back dining or occasional chair reads as furniture rather than equipment, and in a room that doubles as anything else, that is the whole difference.
What is in this room
A light oak desk with a plain apron and no drawers, set at an angle to a black-framed window. A low-back chair with a woven cane seat and back, in the Jeanneret manner — compass legs, visible joinery. A small green task lamp, a single notebook, and a floating black shelf above with one vase on it.
The desk is deliberately empty. That is not styling for the photograph; a desk with no drawers only works if you accept that it will hold nothing permanently.
The trade you are making
Cane is beautiful and it is not ergonomic. A woven seat has no lumbar support and no adjustment. This works for two to three hours of writing, email or drawing. It does not work for eight hours of code.
Be honest about which you are doing. If it is the latter, buy the ugly chair and put it away at the end of the day — a chair on castors can be rolled into a cupboard, which is more than can be said for a bad room.
Why the desk has no drawers
- A drawerless desk can sit at an angle in a room, because every side is finished.
- It forces storage elsewhere, which keeps the surface clear.
- It is significantly cheaper, and the money moves to the chair, where it shows.
Care, briefly
Cane dries out and cracks in direct sun and near radiators. It wants a little humidity. If a seat starts to sag, it can be re-woven — which is worth knowing, because a sagging cane seat looks like a failure and is actually a £60 repair.
Getting the look
Look for light oak or ash rather than walnut — the black window frame is already doing the contrast. A green or brass task lamp keeps the palette to three colours. Keep the wall shelf to one object; two is a display, one is punctuation.
The photograph above is a rendered concept image, not a photograph of a real room. See our affiliate disclosure.
