A Buyers Guide to Executive Office Furniture

Executive office furniture comes in a very wide variety of styles, finishes and prices, from standard desks with a melamine finish to custom-built desks in real wood veneers.

There are basically two main styles of executive office furniture, contemporary and classic. Contemporary office furniture is usually designed by leading European furniture designers.

Materials used can be classic wood veneers, for example in the Times Square range from GDB International, which is available in both light and dark oak, or contemporary glass and steel, such as the Exclusive Diamond range. These desks tend to be expensive, with prices averaging about £2,000 for a fully configured desk. Further down the price range melamine finishes are often used, such as with the K West range, which brings the average price of a desk down to about £1,000. Modern melamine finishes are extremely realistic and are often more hard-wearing and require less maintenance than a real wood veneer. This style of desk tends to be offered in standard sizes, shapes and finishes rather than custom-built to customers specific requirements. They are often modular, so it is possible to select a set of modules which will fit in most environments. A few suppliers of office furniture hold this type of furniture in stock, so will be able to deliver and install the furniture in about one week, but most of this type of executive furniture is built to order and will probably take 2-4 weeks to deliver. Most of this type of modern executive office furniture is supplied in knock-down kits - for ease of storage and transport – but you are strongly advised to insist that your office furniture dealer installs the desk to your satisfaction. A scratch on the desktop of a veneer desk can be an expensive thing to put right, so please check the desk very carefully immediately after installation, in the presence of the installation team. It will be very difficult to assign any blame if the scratch is noticed several days after installation.

 

Classic executive office furniture is available in melamine finishes which replicate real wood, for example Cherry and Walnut, or a very wide range of classic real wood veneers, such as Walnut, Oak etc. some of the standard classic ranges are available from stock, but most are built to order and can take up to six weeks to be built and installed. Some of the best ranges, for example the Nimbus and Stratus ranges from ACT furniture can be custom built to your own specifications of size, shape and finish. Prices can range from a few hundred pounds for standard stock desks in a melamine finish up to many thousands of pounds for a custom-built wood veneer desk. Many executive office furniture ranges include a full range of storage cupboards, filing cupboards, meeting room tables and other elements of furniture. You should think about what other requirements you need at the same time as the desk, particularly when selecting wood veneer products. Wood veneers, even of the same wood, can vary considerably from batch to batch, so if you decide to buy a cupboard at a later date you may find it difficult to match the colour.