Ikea HEMNES Desk Impressions: One cabinet version

The Ikea HEMNES desk with the drawer under the desk and a cabinet on only one side, not all the other ones. And then I remembered that Ikea items had ID numbers that I've manually typed into the self-checkout many times before.

Bagel's ready out of a toaster.

Disclaimer: I had not had any firsthand experience with any HEMNES desk products when I wrote this piece. Details were quoted from the Ikea United States website or Canada website in mid March 2017. Details on this page are NOT guaranteed for accuracy.

Ikea HEMNES Desk First Impressions
To further clarify which desk this I was checking out again, it was the Ikea HEMNES desk (403.397.92) at a price of CA$ 169.00 on the Ikea.ca website. There was only one color option on the product page at the time: "black-brown." According to the whole two photos I saw, the HEMNES desk looked like a rectangular table with one drawer and one cabinet. This cabinet had some floor clearance with four short legs under it. Two more longer legs supported the opposite end. In terms of design, I thought the desk was going for a more traditional or professional appearance -- like what I would picture if someone said they had a desk in their "study."

The dimensions on the HEMNES' product page were 120 cm x 55 cm x 75 cm (width x depth x height). Not bad for my uses, my preferences were 100 cm to 120 cm for width and 60 cm to 80 cm for depth. This desk was slightly under on depth but not too shallow in my view. Height felt like it was in line with other desks I had used for years. Words that got my attention under the "Product description" on the website were "Solid pine" and "Fiberboard."

Unusually creepy photo of pants worn over a head.

A run through of the "Assembly instruction" document initially had me worried with the page count of the PDF. Then I saw what looked like the option to choose which side to mount the cabinet on and was relieved. But after going through the instructions for one option and double-checking the hardware inventory, the process indeed felt laborious. The steps appeared familiar to me, it was just that there seemed to be a lot of them. I also got the impression from the document that the back of the HEMNES desk's cabinet was not open like I had seen in other Ikea desks with cabinets. This was a good thing to me as I wouldn't have to worry about things falling out the back -- or things getting in the back?

Some other ideas before wrapping up: the dark color concerned me with respect to the visibility of dust. Having some floor clearance under the cabinet was a perk for cable routing -- same with the other end's legs. This HEMNES desk reminded me of the cheaper Ikea MICKE desk (802.130.74 in white) with the cabinet and two drawers. They both seemed to have a storage cabinet and a drawer under the desktop. However, the HEMNES was like an older cousin of the MICKE in terms of aesthetic design. A professional look may be a more future-proof design in my opinion.

Final Thoughts
So, I was mostly content with the appearance and size of the HEMNES. And its price wasn't exorbitant to me. If it were available in a lighter color, that would have been nice. This was something I could see myself holding onto for a while -- assuming it held up and I had room.