A desk is the piece that anchors your home office so you want one that feels weighty and high quality, even if you don’t have a lot of space. To help you find the best small desk—one that’s both stylish and solidly constructed—we spoke with four home design experts and sifted through hundreds of product options. This was during a time when supply-chain problems were making headlines, and we ultimately found the widest selection of in-stock desks meeting our criteria on Wayfair.com . These are the four best small desks you can buy at Wayfair.  

If you’d like to read how we vetted and tested these desks and which experts we consulted, scroll down for more detail.

AllModern’s Kirk Solid Wood Desk is a midcentury modern-style desk with hairpin legs and iron inlay detail. It’s the smallest desk we tested, with a surface area of 3.8 square feet. We found this suitable for working on a MacBook Air, and when we used the metal pull to open the drawer underneath, it glided easily. The drawer measures 11.5 inches wide, 13 inches deep and a little over two inches tall; that’s not enough room to store legal-size pads, but letter-size documents, small accessories and even some laptops including the MacBook Air will fit. We also like the option for open storage on the right: a cubby measuring 18.8 inches wide, 14.8 inches deep and 3.5 inches tall. The desk feels substantial. The legs are iron bars, forming inverted pyramids in each of the four corners. 

Among the six we tested, this one was also the easiest to set up, in only about five minutes. The sole installation step is screwing in eight bolts using the included Allen key to connect the legs to the desktop. We did have to request a second review unit of this desk because the screw holes on the underside and the right leg unit didn’t line up, but the second unit came together properly. Notably, the assembly instructions reference washers that aren’t included and don’t convey what to do with the four felt pads packed in the hardware bag. It’s a fair assumption that they go on the bottom of the legs to avoid scratching your floor, but some of the legs are pointier at the ends than others, hampering adhesion. An anti-tip kit is included, with brackets pre-installed on the desk so you can zip tie it to matching brackets you would affix to your wall. 

We like the Joss & Main Mullins Solid Wood Desk, especially for those who have a small-office area but need to spread out—it offers nearly 5.5 square feet of work surface. Made of mango wood in a dark finish, with weighty metal legs and roomy twin drawers (each is 17 inches wide, 10.5 inches deep and 2 inches high), it has an almost-heirloom feel. In lieu of drawer pulls, there are hidden notches underneath, which keep the look clean. The legs look narrow, but they’re surprisingly sturdy.   

The Mullins arrives in three pieces, with the legs separate from the desk. It took one tester only about seven minutes to put it together using the included Allen wrench, bolts and washers. Thankfully it wasn’t complicated because the assembly instructions, particularly for the optional anti-tip kit, are inexplicably janky photocopies. The instructions also leave out what to do with the four U-shaped pieces included in the hardware kit, but we quickly figured out they fit under the legs to prevent damage to your floor. 

A clear, glass-topped desk is a smart choice for a small area because it doesn’t take up much visual space, says Elaine Griffin, though it can also be a source of frustration for anyone bothered by fingerprint smudges. The AllModern Roth Glass Desk is one of our two top picks in this style. It’s an understated option that looks higher-end than its price tag, and it offers plenty of workspace with an equal amount of storage. 

With a rectangular frame made of hollow, half-inch steel beams with V-shaped support bars in back, the desk’s design is light but sturdy. Everything is connected with Allen bolts, and I was able to put the Roth together in less than 15 minutes, though I did have to undo some screws at one point to fit in the second tier, a steel storage shelf. This desk’s 34.5-by-16.5-inch glass surface nestles between the steel frame and rests on six clear adhesive rubber dots; our review unit had small gaps between the glass and metal, a minor visual distraction.

Etta Avenue’s Emmalyn Glass Desk is the most sophisticated-looking glass desk we tested. It has a steel-frame base like the Roth but round legs rather than square ones. We liked the bronze painted finish on the review unit we received—a nice contrast against the walnut-stained wood. 

The Emmalyn has a shelf underneath the glass top just like the Roth does, but this one is not made of steel; it’s a 36-by-15.8-inch board of fiberboard laminate (read: manufactured wood) or faux marble. We’d much prefer a plank of solid wood here, but because it’s a shelf that doesn’t get as much as the glass top, it should not affect the desk’s durability overall.

Putting this desk together took me only about 10 minutes from when I unpacked the pieces, though I noted that the legs can be scratched by the Allen wrench if you’re not careful. 

Our original aim was to include ladder-style desks that are made to be anchored to your wall and provide additional shelving above the work surface. Unfortunately, after selecting the two best options from our research, we found significant issues in both when we tested them. (As an aside, Griffin had told us she’s not a fan of ladder desks because they can’t hold as much weight as more traditional styles and can be riskier to lean on.) 

The AllModern Uma Solid Wood Leaning Desk is clean-lined and sleek, and we like the desktop-length drawer and large work surface, but soon after installation, we noticed cracks in the wood. We can’t recommend a desk that’s materially prone to showing that kind of damage. 

The AllModern Reva Leaning/Ladder Desk is structurally sound but falls short in aesthetics. The three horizontal surfaces have rounded edges, but the frame’s notches holding them in place are square, resulting in unsightly gaps. 

I interviewed several home design experts to better understand furniture and, in particular, small desks, for this piece. Catherine and Alexandra Davin are the mother-daughter co-founders of Clairrow, an online design resource that offers digital courses and video consultations. Catherine is also the owner and principal designer at Davin Interiors, where Alexandra is an interior decorator. Vern Yip is an Atlanta-based interior designer who has appeared on TLC and HGTV and is the author of “ Vern Yip’s Design Wise: Your Smart Guide to a Beautiful Home.” Elaine Griffin is also an interior designer, in coastal Georgia, and author of “ Design Rules: The Insider’s Guide to Becoming Your Own Decorator.” 

The design experts we spoke to acknowledged that buying a small desk online can be challenging; shopping in person will give you a more immediate sense of whether a desk is high-quality, though that’s not always feasible and in-store inventory can be scarce. They also noted that second-hand versions may be built better than those that ship from online retailers, but those options can be limited, and the hunt time-consuming. With that in mind, we zeroed in on the three biggest considerations while researching the best small desks you can buy online:

We searched for desks from online retailers that matched this criteria. From there I narrowed down the list in consultation with Leslie Yazel, Buy Side from WSJ’s head of content, and Betsy Goldberg, deputy editor, both of whom have several years of experience covering home design. We called in two desks from each of three categories (wood, metal and glass, and ladder/wall), assembled them in our New York City office following the included instructions, and sat at each while writing about them to get a feel for them first hand.

Our search entailed poring through dozens of furniture, home decor and general retail sites, intending to highlight products from more than one seller. In the end, we focused exclusively on Wayfair and its brands because it is where we found the widest selection of in-stock desks across various styles that met our criteria. 

We’ll reiterate our commitment to editorial independence here: Wayfair provided review samples of the furniture we requested, as do most of the companies whose products we cover, but the company had no influence on our decision to focus exclusively on products you can buy from the Wayfair site. They did not ask, nor did we tell them, that we would be limiting the scope of this story, and the choice was also made without consultation of the Buy Side from WSJ business team. Once we finished with the desks, Wayfair arranged for them to be picked up. 

A note on brand names: Wayfair sells furniture under the AllModern, Birch Lane, Joss & Main and Perigold names, with each brand’s products listed both on its own site and on the main Wayfair.com page. Wayfair also distributes a number of exclusive brands in various styles. Those brand names aren’t necessarily in-house products; the AllModern Kirk Solid Wood Desk, for example, arrived in a box from Safavieh Furniture. A quick bit of research suggests it may the Marigold Desk, available from a number of retailers including Walmart and Amazon for various, fluctuating prices. You may be able to purchase a desk that you see on Wayfair from another site, though it is worth noting that a number of the listings we found elsewhere were out of stock within a few days.

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