Since my boyfriend and I moved in together 4 years ago I've been using my laptop (no desk required) but he has a conventional desktop and up until a couple of months ago it had been sat in the cornor of the living room across two low level square coffee tables - it looked messy and wasn't the ideal position to be working in, so we finally got our act together and decided to go desk buying!

We first went to Homebase as it was nice and local - they did have a lovely desk, but it was far too big and was the only option in stock, so we made the decision to drive the 50 odd miles to Southamptons ikea on a rainy Sunday.

The gap the desk needed to fit into was not to biggest so I made sure I drew a diagram and made note of all the possible applicable dimesions so we could make an informed choice.

I thought Ikea would have tonnes of choice, and to be honest I was a bit disappointed when we got there to find that a) there weren't that many in the 'home office' section and b) they again all seemed massive - it's almost like they think everyone lives in big spacious homes, nope I live in a 3 bed terraced and I want to fit a desk in the corner of the living room between the fire and the window.

Anyway we roamed around the rest of the displays in Ikea on the lookout for something that might do the job and finally saw something in one of the smaller bedroom displays that looked like it would do the job - I made a note of the name/number and went back to look for it in the office section.

Turns out the first label was wrong, but I did find it in some racking on the far side of the home office area - turns out it was the 'Vika Amon' range. Essentially this is a do it yourself desk in more than just construction - you chose all the components yourself and Vika Amon specifically refers to the table top itself.

This is available in a number of different size and colour options and the smallest size was the only one that would fit in the space we had. None of the wood colours matched the wood we alreeady had in the room so we decided to go for a stark contrast and got a black coloured one. From memory the size we purchased was 100x60cm and cost just £9 which seemed very reasonable.

Essentially it's just a big flat slab of painted wood (all sides are painted so you can place it anywhere and it still looks finished, rather than the bares backs you get on some items) and the underside has a number of predrilled holes suitable for affixing various leg options you can purchase with it. The set up we went for was 2 vika moliden legs (the more expensive but stylish looking options) and a draw set of the same height on the other side, we also purchased two brackets and a shelf to put on the top so the screen could be raised up from everything else.

Personally I find the desk to be very sturdy - ours holds the tower, screen, a printer, keyboard etc with no issues and I'd be quite happy to stand on it as I believe it would take a large amount of weight without issue.

One thing to remember if you're going to store yourself to buy this is how you're going to get it home. We have 3 cars - a capri, a mini pickup and a toyota MR2. Either the capri or the pickup would have been most practical but as my capri is off the road that wasn't an option, and we didn't want to use the pickup in the rain so we went in the most impractical car - a small, 2 seater japanese sports car! Along with all the other desk related items we only just managed to squeeze everything in and even this smallest of desk top options was two wide to fit in the boot - we ended up wedging it in the cab of the car where I only just managed to slide in underneath it, having to endure the whole drive home with my head bent to the right as I couldn't sit up straight. So my handy tip of the day is - don't just measure the space you want the furniture to fit into, measure the space in your car too!

Overall I'm very happy with my purchase though - it wasn't what I had in mind when we set out to buy a desk, but it does the job, the desk top was cheap and it's of good quality. It's also quite stylish and modern looking and would fit in well with many homes today so I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.