Who this desk is for

This is a desk for a room that cannot give up any floor at all. Closed, the HOMCOM is a 60cm-wide, 16cm-deep cabinet on the wall with a chalkboard on the front. Open, the front drops down into a 78 x 56.5cm worktop with a leg that folds out to the floor, and the shelves behind it become a small hutch.

That makes it different from the folding desks we usually cover. A GreenForest folding desk still has to be stored somewhere when it is folded. This one stores itself.

It was £64.99 on Amazon when checked, sold by HOMCOM's parent company Aosom, which also lists it directly for a couple of pounds less. Either way it costs about the same as a decent freestanding folding desk.

The numbers that decide whether it fits

The dimensions are worth reading twice, because the open and closed footprints are so different.

Closed: 60cm wide, 16cm deep, 81.5cm tall
Open: 60cm wide, 94.5cm from the wall, 147cm tall including the cabinet
Worktop: 78cm deep by 56.5cm wide, at 71cm from the floor
Weight: 19kg, made from P2 grade MDF
Load: 20kg on the worktop, 5kg per shelf, 30kg in total

The 94.5cm projection is the figure to plan around. Add a chair and room to pull it out and you need roughly 1.7m to 1.8m of clear floor in front of the wall while the desk is open. That is not unusual for a desk, but it does mean this is a "close it when you have finished" desk rather than one that can stay open in a walkway.

Closed, 16cm is shallower than most bookcases. It can live on the wall behind a door, at the end of a bed or on a landing without getting in the way.

What the worktop is actually like to use

Fold the top down and you get a surface that is deep rather than wide. At 56.5cm across, it is narrower than the 60cm desks in our 60cm vs 80cm desk guide, and noticeably narrower than the 80cm most people find comfortable.

In practice that means a laptop and a notebook side by side, or a laptop with a mouse. A full-size keyboard plus mouse plus a mug will feel tight. The 78cm depth helps, because there is room to push the laptop back and use the front for writing, but depth does not fix a shortage of elbow room.

The shelves are the reason to choose this over a plain drop-leaf table. There are five open compartments behind the worktop, rated at 5kg each. They sit at eye level when you are seated, which is convenient for a phone, charger, pens and a couple of books, and it keeps the small worktop clear. A few owners use it as a sewing table or a homework station rather than an office desk, which fits the surface well: enough for one focused task, not for spreading out.

The 71cm worktop height is slightly lower than the 72cm to 75cm of a typical desk. That suits shorter users and children, and it works with a normal office chair. It rules out a bar stool, which some of HOMCOM's own kitchen photos might suggest.

Mounting it: the part that puts people off

This is a 19kg cabinet that will carry another 20kg of laptop, books and elbows. It has to go on a wall that can take that, using fixings suited to the wall type.

The manual estimates around an hour of assembly across 21 steps, and both HOMCOM and several reviewers say two people are needed to lift the assembled cabinet onto the wall. A couple of owners also replaced the supplied wall plugs with heavier-duty fixings, which is sensible advice for plasterboard.

If your tenancy agreement forbids drilling, stop here. A freestanding folding desk is the right answer for that room, and the best folding desks guide covers the options.

The small irritations owners mention

Reviews are broadly positive, with a 4.4-star average from a couple of hundred Amazon ratings, but the same two complaints come up repeatedly.

The first is the magnets that hold the chalkboard leg flat when the desk is closed. More than one owner describes them as too weak, with the panel swinging open, and at least one bought extra magnets to fix it. The separate metal clasp at the top does hold the worktop shut, so the desk stays closed, but the panel inside may not stay flat.

The second is the hinge. One reviewer trapped a thumb badly while closing it. That is a single report, but it is a heavy panel on a metal hinge, so it is worth closing it with both hands and keeping fingers away from the pivot.

Beyond those, the recurring themes are that it is sturdier than owners expected once mounted, that the instructions are clear but the build is slow, and that it looks tidy on the wall.

How it compares

The obvious cheaper alternative is the SoBuy FWT03-W, a 60 x 40cm drop-leaf table that folds flat against the wall for around £40. It is lighter, simpler to fit and fine for a laptop, but it has no storage and a shallower surface.

At the other end, the Mobili Fiver Evolution wall desk gives you a fixed 180cm-wide floating desk for around £225. It is the better full-time workstation, but it is always there. The HOMCOM is the one to choose when the room has to look like a bedroom or hallway again at the end of the day.

Against a freestanding folding desk at similar money, the HOMCOM wins on floor space and storage and loses on portability, worktop width and the effort of installation.

HOMCOM fold-down wall desk verdict

This is a clever piece of furniture with a clear job: give a small room a proper desk and storage without permanently taking any floor. It does that well, and at around £65 the price is fair for what is included.

The compromises are equally clear. The worktop is narrow, the install is a proper job, and the magnets are the weak point. If you own your home, have a solid wall and mostly work on a laptop, it is a smart buy. If you need elbow room, move house often or cannot drill, buy something that stands on the floor instead.

The verdict

Rating: 4/5

The HOMCOM fold-down wall desk is one of the few desks that genuinely disappears, and the shelves inside make it more than a hinged shelf. The narrow worktop and the demands of mounting it mean it suits a settled home with a specific gap rather than anyone who just wants a small desk.

Pros

+ Closes to just 16cm deep, so the room gets its floor back
+ Five built-in shelves keep stationery and chargers off the worktop
+ 78cm of depth is unusual for a fold-away desk and suits a laptop plus notebook
+ Fold-out leg supports the outer edge, so it is not relying on hinges alone
+ Chalkboard front is more useful for lists than it sounds

Cons

- Worktop is only 56.5cm wide, narrower than most compact desks
- Needs a solid wall and two people to mount its 19kg
- Magnets holding the chalkboard panel shut are weak according to more than one owner
- Not a sensible choice for a rented room with a no-drilling clause

Check current price£64.99