Computer armoire or desk?

[KBecks]

I'm at a friend's house for the weekend and she has her computer in an armoire. Our computer room is a hodge podge mess (really a room for the litter box, fish tank and computer, with lots of odds and ends furniture.

Do you have a computer armoire and do you like it? Does it provide enough space for you? Do you use a separate writing desk and/or storage furniture?

Or do you prefer a traditional computer desk? I am not a laptop person yet, and don't know that I ever would get comfortable using a computer on the sofa, in bed, etc.

I'm also debating where the computer should eventually live in our home. Keep it in the 4th bedroom (even if the 4th becomes our guest room at some point), move it downstairs when we finish the basement (someday), or put it in the living room (the family room is too small).

We'll eventually use it as a family computer, and I would like to monitor my kid's activity, so maybe a public space is good.

Any advice appreciated!! I think I might love a hutch, but would miss extra space to lay out all my papers and extra "junk", especially when doing work projects.

Thanks!

[new_mommy25]

Our computer is in the living room so we opted for the armoire. Noah gets into everything and I didn't want him messing with anything. Plus I like being able to just close the doors when company comes over. Ours is just a cheapy one we got from Walmart. It's not even that pretty but it does the job. Later on we'll probably upgrade to a nicer one.

If we had an office I would probably do a traditional computer desk. I like having the extra space. I am toying with the idea of getting a writing desk for my room.

[boogiemom]

We have our computer in an armoire and we love it! We still have room to work because we have a flat panel monitor so we just use the space in front of it to work. We used to have our computer in an extra bedroom but neither of us really liked being so far away from the "action" of the house. We just felt too isolated.
We also wanted to have the computer in a public space now that we have kids so we can monitor computer activity when the time comes for them to venture onto the internet.

I love that we can have papers everywhere and just close the doors and it looks so neat and tidy. We bought ours at an unfinished furniture store and it has a built-in filing cabinet and a drawer. This is nice because we do all our bills here and can make notes on incoming bills once we've paid online. Then just reach down and file it away.

Ours also has quite a bit of storage space built in above the computer and down the side of the hutch. I'm really glad we bought the larger version that our store had. I would really miss the extra places to put all our "stuff".

Good Luck!

[kijip]

My experience is that armoires for computers do not make messy office people tidy office people and they do give less space to stack papers. BUT it does a better job of hiding the mess for company etc!

Totally in favor of making the computer in a public place like the family room or kitchen area- parents need to monitor online stuff with all the stuff that is out there. Your young child is safer IMO if they use the computer where they can be seen/watched.

We have an armoire and it is tidy but we are generally tidy. I frankly don't like it all that much but do like that the comuter is hidden in a pretty cabinet.

Love my laptop for this reas- can use it anywhere and at my "non-computer" desk!