Dorel Living Drafting and Craft Counter Height Desk, Espresso

I very much enjoy the clean lines of the drafting table. I actually wish I could have the same design but shorter!! so that my current old chair could be used. I'm still looking for a better chair than the new one I bought but actually don't like!!

What drew me to this desk first and foremost was the flat right hand side. After using similar desks in a Cartooning studio, I have come to love that space to keep inks, paints, and various art supplies. I can not emphasize enough how important it is to have my supplies within arms reach, and on a flat surface. I hated, absolutely hated, that the vast majority of art desks are completely angled, leaving little to no room for supplies to remain flat. I work a lot with ink, so this was always a major concern. With my old desk I would always have to use a tv tray to keep my supplies next to me. I also frequently keep my laptop on it, and books open for easy reference. Another huge draw was the price. "Professional" Cartooning desks can run in the high hundreds, even thousands. I loved the fact also that is not designed to look like a typical art desk. Its color and design are more like to match a home decor. I keep mine in my bedroom/studio, so this was a huge plus. The drawers are large enough to fit my paints, brushes, inks and various supplies. The shelves fit my standard and smaller size papers and books, and even my laptop. Behind the angled panel, I have room to fit my larger papers. I keep the dividers out, and the desk always open, since some of the paper I keep in there is comic book size, 11 x 17, and larger. A possible downside for people would be the lack of angles. Either the desk is near 45 degrees, or completely flat. It can be adjusted to other angles, but would probably buckle back to 45 degrees as there is no lock to keep it at those angles. For me this not an issue, however, if you wanted to, you could probably add pegs for support, or keep the bar behind the work surface wedged with books. The work surface area is large enough for the vast majority of projects. Anything around of under 24 x 36 inches should be absolutely fine. The desk came in great shape, though it is time consuming putting together, and you will probably want two people working on it. I did mine myself, and took me a little under three hours. The desk came heavily packed with packing foam and peanuts, which get all over the place. Great for keeping the pieces free from scratches and damage, but a mess once you open the box. The tools required for putting it together are simple, and should be in any basic tool kit. The screws and bolts are clearly labeled. It is also very easy to clean. I personally just use orange oil to wipe off ink and paint that spill. All in all, I HIGHLY recommend this desk as an inexpensive art desk.

I have been using a hand built drafting table for the last year and was experiencing some pretty negative effects on my back. The table was too low so my posture was terrible while drawing. I decided to check out drafting tables online and found The Dorel Asia... it arrived with all necessary pieces and very easy instructions. The table was in perfect condition when it arrived - no damage occurred during shipping. I sat at that table for 8 hours last week and absolutely loved it. My posture was great, and I had much better lighting thanks to the little side table (My light source used to be a bit further away and was far less effective.) I was also able to set up my laptop on the side table (I use my laptop for viewing reference pictures while drawing) - it was awesome to have it so close at hand. Added bonus: the table is aesthetically much nicer than my old table and a lot of other tables I had been looking at. It was also a lot cheaper than many of the other tables I was considering. Bottom line: Awesome purchase. Great value for the price, serves my needs perfectly. The only thing to consider when deciding whether to buy this is how much surface space you need for the drafting portion of the table - it's not huge. A lot of the other tables out there are going to give you more space. If you are working on really large pieces of art you might want to go with something else. I mostly work within 12x16 or 18x20 so this table is perfect - I will have to get out my old table if I want to work on anything much bigger.

My review of the Dorel Asia WM3514 Drafting and Craft Counter Height Desk, Espresso. Overall, I'm happy with my purchase. I took in account for the other reviews that said there were a lot of pieces and that they had damage, etc. That being said, Yes there were a lot of pieces.. But to my surprise, there were many pieces already together. the sides of the desk, for instance, were already in one piece. Did I feel this had to many pieces and was too much work, not really. I have made a few desks, an entertainment center, a few chairs, a bookshelf, etc. together in the past.. not really anything new. It always takes time to build something.. pay more money if you want it already constructed.. you get what you pay for. Anyway, as far as damage. I was concerned about this, especially when I received my package in the mail. The box looked like it had been through a war.. Luckily when I opened the box, I saw how neatly packed they pieces were and there was a lot of protection around the pieces as well. I had no damage to the items I received despite the box's outer appearance. After putting it together, I was disappointed about one aspect. I did not like that some of the inner wood attachment pieces were cheap and thin.. when I went to screw them in, a few cracked when I tightened them. That being said, be careful to not tighten the pieces more than needed, especially the inner pieces, after you attach all other pieces the inner pieces should be tight enough. Hope that helps. Why I gave this a 4 out of 5: the positive: nice solid wood for outer pieces, has a high quality look when finished, good instructions with great visual descriptions for the numerous number of pieces involved, wonderful price, has a lot of space to organize, comes in a box with a lot of inner protection! The negative: some inner pieces are cheap thin wood pieces that break easily, takes about 3/4 hours for one person the make, there are just enough pieces for assembly (so don't loose anything during the process of making the desk!), wish there was a little more under the counter space but was still nice to have either way. Main reason for deducting a star: wood easily cracking! This really is a good quality desk once put together 2022 UPDATE: Still going strong! I’ve had this desk for awhile now and love it. My only issue I’ve had with it is I did stack some heavy books on that bottom shelf and it was not strong enough to hold all of them so the corner cracked where the adjustable hidden tabs are shown in the video I posted. So if you decide to add anything heavy to the bottom I would avoid putting it on the actual removable/adjustable board/shelf they give you and put it on the very bottom instead. One other thing is I love the desk but since it’s taller like I mentioned in the video you really need a drafting chair for it, I have had the worst luck finding a nice comfortable drafting chair as I use this desk for school, etc and don’t use it as a drafting table like many may. Just keep that in mind if you’re possibly using it for other purposes.

Positives: I really wanted a drawing table with an adjustable panel on one side for a sketchbook, and a fixed panel on the other side for my laptop. This is one that fits the bill at a good price. It took me about 2.5hrs to put it together by myself (I'm a 26 year old woman). The finished product is great- seems sturdy, is easy to lift and move, is shallow enough to fit in my apartment, and has the adjustability features I was looking for. None of the pieces came damaged, and all of the pieces were present. The instructions were easy to follow. Negatives: Two of the drawer side pieces came with holes drilled at the wrong spots, and the adjustable-height panel that makes up most of the desk top had only small notches indicating where the holes should have been, but no holes drilled. Thankfully, I have access to a drill and was able to rectify these problems myself. Also, the piece that contains the plastic drawer-stops that keeps the drawers from pulling out all the way is held in with only dowels, no screws- because of this, it is hard to keep it in a straight position during assembly, so when I finished assembling the desk base, I realized it was crooked, which caused the drawers not to push in all the way. I eventually just snapped the piece and removed it as dis-assembling the desk would have been a hassle (this piece isn't necessary, just convenient). If you are careful with aligning this piece, you will have better luck. Overall: I haven't seen many reviews saying they had the same problem that I did with the pre-drilled holes being absent/misplaced, so it is possible I was a fluke. If you are careful while assembling and willing to put in a couple of hours, while saving money, this desk is a good buy!