A writing desk is a work space for one person. It should be compact, light, and not too deep. There should be a drawer for pencils and paper. The top should be smooth, and left clear of distracting clutter. Beyond that? We have a lot of freedom to play.

The wood for this desk was harvested along the Sacramento River levee north of the farm town of Grimes. The tree was a hybrid of the native California walnut, claro, with the English walnut. The hybrid is known as paradox in the walnut grower community and Bastogne in the gunstock/woodworking network.

We found the complexity of grain and color of some of the boards too mottled to integrate in the frame of the desk so we decided to re-saw one of the boards into thick veneer and laminate the pieces onto solid wood, making the wraparound apron homogeneously spectacular.