Flavorwire’s recents 10 Design Solutions for Working in Bed has me both intrigued and concerned. From a design perspective, I was interested to see what some designers came up with for bed/desk solutions, because who doesn’t like to work in bed at some point?  Ikea’s MALM occasional table (above) is an accessible solution; it has casters so you can roll it right over your bed, transforming it into a desktop to work at while you’re propped up on pillows. Many of the designs featured were farfetched like Athanasia Leivaditou of Studio NL’s Work Desk Bed: the 17-square-foot work area contains the bed, and a television monitor below it. But 17 x 2 does cleverly expand the square footage into 34 square feet in the same footprint.

Athanasia Leivaditou/Studio NL
Athanasia Leivaditou/Studio NL

I like the essential premise of Bed 42 from Manada which has a platform bed on one side (I’d put a bigger mattress on it) and a desk, out of sight, on the other. And having your work disappear from view can be essential to well-being.

Manada
Manada

Having spent years working in the same room I slept in (and the wonders of a Murphy Bed, I  learned the hard way NOT separating work and sleep can lead to sleep disorders or, simply, a general lack of balance. Abundant research has shown that sleep really needs to be SLEEP in order to refresh the brain to be it’s truly creative self.  It’s important to turn work — and doing —  OFF for a portion of the day.

It’s the reason, I installed an actual moving wall that closes off my home office.
Sally Schneider's sliding wall
Curious, Flavorwire didn’t show one of the our all-time favorite’s for sleeping where you work: designer Tobias Wong’s file cabinet bed always seemed like an idea that holds huge potential.
Tobias Wong
Tobias Wong
Also not in Favorwire’s round up is the soon-to-be-released device from Thanko that holds a laptop or book over your head so you can read or write lying down. This incredibly homely tool has several configurations so you can sit or lounge. Clever and ugly: what a dilemma!
Thanko
Thanko

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2 replies on “Bed Desk Solutions for Working in Bed (and What to Avoid)

  1. I sit on the floor to work. Ineed a rolling table at least 29″ wide and 15″ deep, and aprrox.12″ high. They don’t seem to exist.

  2. You need to make one. My strategy: get a cheap old coffee table with sturdy legs. Saw off the legs to the height where adding wheels to them will bring it to where you want. Or just get a slab of wood, add blocky legs + the wheels, which you can get online.

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