Enchord Desk and Mobile Cabinet

What's In It For You

Product Story

The work we do at home makes special demands on our space and furniture. Designed specifically to support the wide range of tasks that happen at home, the Enchord desk and mobile cabinet are an affordable, simple, and downright clever solution to getting the homework done, keeping the papers you're using now organized and at hand, and letting you keep your phone and a sandwich nearby while you shop online.

Available only through Herman Miller retailers.

Simplicity that Isn't Simple

Two tabletops on the desk. What for? To provide the most function with the least unnecessary complexity. The primary surface is the "desktop"--where you do your work. The secondary surface beneath it, which slides, is for storing your laptop, routing cords and cables, and keeping the papers you're working with at hand and out of sight when you have to stop working to pick up the kids or sit down to dinner.
The lower surface slides easily back and forth to create just the right configuration for whatever task is being tackled. Slide it to the right, or left, to create an 11- or 12-inch surface that might hold files, a printer, or a craft project. Center it to create a 5-inch surface on either side to hold your phone, daily organizer, cup of coffee.
The desk has no defined front or back. Put it where you want it, then move it when you want it somewhere else, sit at either side. Totally flexible.

Movable Storage

Roll the Enchord mobile cabinet to where you need it--or to where it's out of the way when you're not working--on its sturdy two-inch casters.
This cabinet stores all kinds of materials and lets you get at them from all directions. You can put small peripherals on the top surface, which has a recessed tray and a cutout for routing cords or cables. Keep small supplies in the front drawer with cork liner; binders and books in the front open compartment. File your papers in the removable oak file bin that's accessible from both sides of the cabinet.

Good Looks

The Enchord desk and mobile cabinet have a clean and streamlined look that makes them comfortable wherever you need them in your home. The desk is available with a chalk white laminate top surface and bright pesto green secondary surface or a white oak veneer top surface with chalk white laminate secondary surface. The smart tapered legs are made of steel for strength.
The mobile cabinet is chalk white; the drawer front can be either chalk white or pesto green.

Designers Sam Hecht and Kim Colin of Industrial Facility, a London, England, design office, say they created Enchord "to be open to interpretation," to provide "discovered pleasure in flexibility. "You become more aware of what it can do as you use it," says Hecht.

"We were inspired to design a table that was functional and flexible to match people's lives," says Colin, "yet be simple, understated, and elegant--not over-engineered or too dramatic--so it fits in multiple environments."

Dual-level surfaces provided the solution. They automatically create different zones for different materials--for example, the computer on the upper surface and the printer on the lower. Between the levels is space for storage and wire management. All this without complicating the simple design.
Their design has gotten lots of attention since it was introduced in 2008. GQ magazine included the desk in its "Best Stuff of the Year, 2008" feature. "It's often the case that when you try to solve a problem, you create another," Hecht told GQ. "So instead of equipping this desk with elaborate cable troughs and trays, he simply gave it a secondary surface that hides wires and papers and acts as an extension you can use for a printer, a cereal bowl, or your wife's laptop. Just try to clutter it."