Over a number of years, we designed and made a series of desks from reclaimed Iroko salvaged from old school laboratory worktops.

The original inspiration came from a vintage circular mid-century coffee table that we particularly admired. Its beautifully proportioned splayed legs featured intricate bevels to each face, giving an otherwise simple design a distinctive sculptural quality.

Using this as our starting point, we developed our own leg profile and templates specifically for the desks. We wanted the finished pieces to have a strong mid-century aesthetic — clean, simple and carefully proportioned — while allowing the reclaimed timber to tell a very different story.

As a subtle finishing detail, four contrasting maple plugs were inset into opposing corners of each desktop. Their lighter tone provided a deliberate point of contrast against the darker Iroko and became a distinctive feature of the design.

Years of use in school laboratories had left the Iroko covered with scratches, marks, graffiti and other traces of its previous life. Rather than removing these completely, we carefully refinished the timber while retaining much of this character and patina.

It was this contrast that defined the finished design: the precision and simplicity of the mid-century-inspired form set against the imperfect surface of timber that had already lived a long and useful life.

We had originally introduced the desks before lockdown, but in 2020 they suddenly found a new relevance. With working from home becoming part of everyday life and many furniture retailers temporarily closed, we made the design available to order again and produced a new run for home workspaces across the country.

The desks were produced in two sizes — 1200 × 600mm and 1500 × 600mm — with each one individually made. The natural variations and surviving marks in the reclaimed Iroko ensured that no two pieces were ever quite the same.