Personalizing the Workspace with Perch
A new one-stop shop for design-driven goods, from tape dispensers to affordable hardwood desks
Our workspaces are, oftentimes, the least beautiful spaces in our lives—it’s easier to run to a gigantic chain store (and actually meet the project deadline) than consciously setting up a desk that will bring tiny vibrations of joy every time we sit down. But for an area we spend so much time in—almost as much as we sleep—it sorely needs more attention.
A new go-to shop to upgrade your workspace in just a few clicks, the just-launched Perch has put together a collection of high-quality essential work tools that get the creative juices flowing in just one look. There are pieces from design staples like Hay and Vitra. Even looking at the tape dispensers—from a handmade brass and maple sculpture to a minimal S-shaped curve from Japanese firm Metaphys—instill a thrill. The latter is just $8, so Perch isn’t just “aspirational office porn,” like some design stores can be.
While the other goods are selected from admired brands, Perch designed and manufactures their own, currently two, desks. “When I suggested we take a hardwood desk design, one with a detailed design and handcrafted construction quality and manufacture it in a factory and make it flat-pack, while keeping every other nuance of the design, I was told I was nuts and that it was impossible to maintain that quality for self-assembled furniture,” Perch CEO Lucy Lyle tells CH. That fantasy become as solid as mahogany: the wood desks are handmade in Nicaragua, offered at an honest price thanks to working directly with the factory and the flat-pack delivery, and only take 15 minutes to assemble (New Yorkers can take advantage of their free assembly service). Best of all, no unattractive screws. Instead there are beautiful, and much stronger mortise and tenon joints.
Lyle continues, “Our desks were designed to not only be of considered design and construction, but also practical for the limited space of our urban-dwelling customers who are likely setting up their workspace as part of their living room or bedroom—the dimensions of our desks account for this, as do nuanced angles which discreetly hide some of the traditionally bulky components, like desk drawers, from certain angles.” The minimalist Harrison Desk, for example, has three drawers that hide from birds-eye view (thanks to an angled face), but also designed to be easily pulled from multiple positions.
Shop the Helm ($750) and Harrison ($1250) desks, which come with a generous 30-day refund window, as well as everything else that you want to clutter on top of it, from Perch online.
Images courtesy of Perch
