10 Ways You Can Customize an Amish Wood Desk

Beth Rice 19/03/2020

Amish wood desks are special. Not just because they’re pretty and made with solid wood, but because they are customizable and customizations give you options. An Amish wood desk can have the look, the features and the function that will serve you best.

Here are 10 ways you can customize an Amish wood desk to be the desk you like to use, look at, own and pass on for generations to come.

Get ready. It’s fun.

10 Ways to Customize an Amish Wood Desk

Choose a Reverse Layout

L desks feature a main desk area and a return. What’s the return on a desk? The return attaches to the main desk and provides an additional work space to one side of the desk. The return on an L desk is the area where you often see a hutch topper added, and it will usually feature a pencil drawer.

Amish Berkley L Desk with Optional Hutch — The Amish Kingsman L Desk with Optional Hutch with return on the left.

What’s great about Amish wood desks is if you need the return on the left side versus the right or vice versa, you can customize by requesting a reverse layout to best fit your office space.

Create a Larger Kneehole Space

Say you’ve got an extra-large desk chair you want to use with a new Amish wood desk. The kneehole space can be customized with some extra width to accommodate your desk chair and have you sitting comfortably.

60" Rivertowne Amish Desk — Amish desks like the 60″ Rivertowne Amish Desk can be customized with more kneehole space.

Increase the Desk Height

Going hand in hand with adjusting the kneehole space so you can sit comfortably doing work for hours is the customization to increase the desk height for more space. This is a great customization so you can have more leg room and your desk chair can slide underneath the desk when not in use.

Would you need the Amish Royal Mission Writing Desk built a bit higher?

Choose A Pencil Drawer or a Keyboard Drawer

The central pencil drawer provides room for writing utensils and other office essentials right where you need them. If you use a desktop holder for writing utensils and prefer a keyboard pullout, you can add this customization to your desk.

Amish Homestead Corner L Desk with Optional Hutch Top — You have your choice of drawer style for the Amish Homestead Corner L Desk. A reverse layout is available for this desk also.

The keyboard pullout slides out for easy access to your keyboard, and then tucks it away neatly when it’s not in use.

Amish Boulder Creek Four Drawers Desk with Unfinished Backside Pencil Drawer Organizer Tray for Desk — Consider a pencil drawer…

Boulder Creek Four Drawers Desk with Unfinished Backside — …or keyboard pullout.

Add a Glass or Leather Top

The addition of glass on top of your wood desktop can help protect the wood underneath. The leather tops are also stunning and add to the luxurious look of your desk.

Amish Whitman Desk — The Amish Whitman Writing Desk can be customized with a leather top.

Customizing with a glass or leather inlay on top is often recommended for desks made with cherry or brown maple wood since they are a little softer than other hardwoods.

Amish Lexington 72" Executive Desk — The Amish Lexington 72″ Executive Desk

Add Lights to Hutch Tops

Hutch tops bring additional storage with unique shelves, cubbies and cabinets. The option to add lighting—manual or touch—right where you need it is a bright customization!

Custom lighting illuminates the beauty of the Amish Boulder Creek Desk with Optional Hutch

Add Power Ports or Grommet Holes

Power ports (often pop up models) add additional function that allows you to plug in by adding outlets and USB ports.

The addition of a pop-up power station is a customization available for the Amish Jefferson Executive Desk.

You don’t want to ruin the look of your gorgeous wood desk with cords all over the place, and the addition of grommet holes right where you need them helps to keep cords in check.

Amish Centennial Flat Top Desk with Optional Hutch — You can add grommets to accommodate cords on the Midland Mission Executive Desk.

Have Matching Pieces Built

If you’ve fallen in love with the look of your Amish wood desk and there’s not matching office furniture offered, you can just ask us if you need a matching bookcase, hutch, file cabinet or credenza. There’s a good chance our Amish woodworkers will build you one. Just like that.

Have the Backside Finished

When you choose the customization for a finished desk back, the back of the desk is stained and raised panels are often used to enhance the look. This is ideal if you’d like to place the desk anywhere in the room and the desk back will be observed regularly.

Let’s clarify that if you opt not to have the backside of your desk finished, that doesn’t mean the back is left bare with rough wood and no stain. The back will be stained and will have regular wood panels. This plainer presentation of a desk back is used when it is assumed that the back of the desk will be placed up against a wall.

The Amish Reno Desk with Finished Backside and Curved Top

Amish Kincaid Executive Desk — The Amish Riften Executive Desk

Modify Mailslots or Pullout Trays for Printers

Say you ordered an Amish wood desk and you need the mail slots to aide in organization, but you prefer they be moved to another part of the hutch or desk. This customization allows you to do just that. This goes for pullout trays as well. Amish woodworkers make accommodations for the trays so they are positioned where they will work best for you.