The Belaire desk is finished in a black glossy powder coat frame with a clear tempered safety glass desktop. Features a spacious desktop workspace and a raised monitor shelf for comfortable viewing.
Key features
- Contemporary black glossy powder coat frame.
- Clear tempered glass for safety.
- Raised monitor shelf for comfortable viewing.
- Pull-out keyboard tray with room for a mouse.
- Spacious desktop work-space.
- Reinforced plates on all welding joints for maximum strength and durability.
OK, it’s not Herman Miller or Steelcase. What this desk does offer is solid construction, a large amount of work surface, and a nice modern look at a reasonable price.
I put the desk together myself in about an hour – however I’m tall, moderately strong, and mechanically inclined. I can see where having a helper would come in handy for assembly for a lot of people.
The packaging was, in a word, awesome. The glass panels are well sandwiched in layers of cardboard and styrofoam, then tightly wrapped in a cardboard box with plastic bands. Then this box is put inside the main box, with all the other hardware components. The main box has corner bracing and a nice heavy layer of styrofoam on all sides. When UPS delivered the box today it had some signs of handling – some crunched corners – but nothing that even came close to damaging the contents.
A brief note about the shipping – with Amazon Prime, I ordered this on Tuesday night and had it on Thursday. It shipped UPS 2nd Day Air, likely with over-weight surcharges, all covered as part of the Amazon Prime membership. This was particularly convenient as today was my day off so a perfect time to rework my home office. Prime has paid for itself many times over, this is just one example.
As others have noted, it’s simple enough to locate the monitor shelf on the right or the left. You can also position the keyboard drawer on either side; I didn’t install it at all as at my height (6′ 3″) keyboard drawers are a hinderance.
Overall the construction is very solid. There are four main frames that appear to be moderate gauge steel, good welds, and nice gloss black powdercoating. The cross braces are of the same finish. Follow the instructions, don’t tighten any screws all the way until everything is loosely assembled, and you can’t go wrong.
Being a glass desk, one must take care in routing & tying up cables to prevent it from looking like a rat’s nest. If you want your office to look neat, and you don’t want to spend the extra time tidying up your cables, don’t buy a glass desk. Simple enough.
I’m particularly impressed at the strength of the corner filler glass. Although there is no support at the back of the arc, the sticker on the glass says the shelf is good for 50 pounds. The support is strong square-tube metal, and has no tendency to bow or wobble. I’m not even close to the rated weight, but it’s clearly a sturdy area and would handle heavy loads such as a laser printer easily.
As to whether this desk is a good choice for you, of course the size and layout will be the main factor. That part worked out perfectly for me. The next concern is overall construction quality, and given the price I think that it deserves a solid 5-star rating in that regard. I would not recommend it for industrial use, but for a home office it’s plenty solid.
