This is Kind of Obsessed, a column about all the stuff we’re really, really into right now.
Thanks to shifting “must-haves,” not nearly enough money in the bank for a down payment on a house and a global pandemic, my partner and I have moved in four apartments in four years (three in New York City, one in Charleston, SC). Most of the time, I don’t sweat it much; most people around my age are too broke for home ownership, too. And it’s only at the end of each lease, when the creeping specter of moving makes each passing day darker, do I feel regret. Hoek’s new and moving-friendly desk softens the blow.
Designed by a pair of college friends in Brooklyn, it’s flatpack furniture taken another step. Its FSC-certified plywood top is fitted with a plastic base that holds its pop-out plastic legs, not unlike the perforated playing cards of a board-game when you open it for the first time. Only the Hoek desk’s legs can snap back into the base, too, making the desk incredibly handy for frequent movers whose rented U-Haul truck space is severely limited.
Its curvy and the handles on its legs (which help to lock and unlock from the base) are different-looking, but I like it. Many desks in the $400 to $500 range are kind of a bore. The plastic base, an recycled plastic composite called HDPE, is also a nice touch. Its got a self-lubricated quality (which sounds gross but isn’t) that makes clipping the legs into and out of the base pretty painless, bar the first time I did it and bludgeoned myself with a leg.
I’ll be using it for my foreseeable, renting future. It’s available now for $599. The company says it’s set to ship in December.
