Z-Line® Harvard Executive Desk

Better than expected

After reading the reviews, I expected a pretty nice desk. In the back of my mind, however, was the fact that it is an assembly required desk, and I've owned several assembly required...Read complete review

After reading the reviews, I expected a pretty nice desk. In the back of my mind, however, was the fact that it is an assembly required desk, and I've owned several assembly required desks in the past, and my experiences with them have led me to believe that they are generally a bit rickety and unstable, so I expected a bit of that with this desk. I was pleasantly surprised to find that, not only was the assembly of this desk far less complicated than others I've had, but the construction is very solid. There is no wobbling or creaking or sticking drawers. This is a very solid piece of furniture.

The drawers (including the pull-out keyboard drawer) pull very smoothly, and close snugly. None of the drawers are even remotely crooked - which is likely due in large part to the pre-installation of the slide rails. The rails are all pre-mounted to the drawers and the parts of the desk that receive the drawers, thus eliminating any consumer error in aligning them. The rails are high quality and include ball bearing mechanisms to smooth out their opening and closing.

The 4 smaller drawers are all felt-lined which adds a nice traditional feel to them, and helps to prevent the noise from the rattling of pens or other items in the drawers as you open or close them.

The "front" of the desk (non-drawer side) concerned me since there were no images of it. I didn't know if it would be a flat finished surface, a decorative finished surface or an ugly unfinished surface. It turns out that the front side is finished nicely. The "modesty panel" is a flat finished surface while the two columns are somewhat decorative - they look like large handle-less drawers with a flat outside edge. Not particularly fancy, but not plain or unfinished either.

The only complaints I had with the desk are more suggestions than complaints.

First, I would have liked at least one locking drawer, but this may be something that I can modify on my own if the need arises.

Second, the pull-out keyboard shelf/drawer, while sturdy and roomy, is in the way of the arms of my office chair. The arms of my chair - when the chair is as low as it will go - are about 1/2 inch too high to fit under the shelf. This isn't much of a problem except that when I am not at the desk, I can't push the chair in all the way. After measuring my chair and then measuring the arms of several other similar chairs at a local office supply store, I've come to the conclusion that the desk won't likely fit a typical executive desk chair with arms.

Lastly, as another reviewer mentioned, there is a noticeable smell from the finish. The room I have the desk in isn't well ventilated, but the smell was gone within a week. I would suggest using a recommended cleaner or furniture polish on the pieces before assembling the desk in order to reduce the smell.

I completed the construction of the desk by myself, but I would recommend having two people available if possible. I'm a 6'2", 250lb 40 year old male, and the only part I really had trouble with was aligning the top of the desk. The top of the desk is very heavy, and needs to line up with somewhere around 10 cams and 10 dowels. If you can lift the top by yourself, it's easy enough to set it roughly in place and reposition the columns until the top is lined up.

Because of the sturdiness and simplicity of the construction, this desk will likely be very easy to move. Just take off the top, the modesty panel, and and the keyboard drawer and you have 5 sturdy, manageable pieces to move. If you think you might move the desk after assembling it, I would highly recommend only gluing the dowels to the first piece they contact. I glued the dowels when I inserted them into the individual pieces, but did not glue them when I joined pieces together. This way, I won't have to break the dowels or the boards themselves in order to break the desk down to move it. The desk is plenty sturdy without gluing both ends of the dowels.

Overall, I am absolutely thrilled with this desk, and have even considered buying other pieces of the collection in the future.