FDB Møbler Nørrebro Desk with Hidden Storage: Black Linoleum

A writing desk with its storage hidden in plain sight — lift the black linoleum topped work surface and pens, cables, and everyday desk clutter tuck away in the body underneath, out of view. FDB Møbler's Nørrebro was designed by Copenhagen furniture designer Isabel Ahm, who raised the back level to work like a living-room shelf — a place for a lamp, books, or whatever a room already keeps in view.

Ahm designed the desk to sit in a living room. "I looked at the architecture of living rooms and noticed the surfaces sit at different levels," she has said of the desk, "and thought that was interesting in relation to making a desk that would blend naturally into the living room."

Seen from the side, that stepped profile is the whole idea — two graphic planes in oak and black, built to read as furniture in a room. The linoleum surface takes daily wear, pens and mugs and a laptop's edge, without showing it, and lifts clean on its hinge when the hidden storage underneath is needed. Compact enough for a small apartment or a tight corner, where furniture has to do more than one job. Solid oak frame, oak veneer, black linoleum surface with hidden storage beneath, raised open shelf.

Isabel Ahm is a Copenhagen-based furniture and product designer. She graduated from the Danish Royal Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture, in 2007 and opened her own studio in 2009.

Part of our FDB Møbler and Danish Design collections.