---
title: "How To Furnish Your Desk, Car Guy Edition"
description: "You might not write the Great American Novel, but your thank-you notes will have real flair."
date: "2015-11-03"
modified: "2015-11-03"
authors:
  - name: "Ben Keeshin"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/ben-keeshin"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/gear-up/741/how-to-furnish-your-desk-car-guy-edition"
categories:
  - "Accessories"
  - "The Garage"
tags:
  - "commerce"
  - "NoAds"
---

# How To Furnish Your Desk, Car Guy Edition

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/archive-images/hero_desk.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com</em>*

Many writers have ritualistic quirks. James Joyce wrote lying facedown on his bed in a white coat with either a large blue pencil or a crayon. Agatha Christie sought inspiration while chewing on apple cores in the bath. Vladimir Nobokov liked best to type in a parked car. Some less illustrious scribes, lacking the luxury of a kooky haunt, smoke their way to creativity.

Wide-ranging and highly personal though these habits may be, it’s easy to draw a hypothesis: To create, you need the right environment and, realistically, that environment will be a desk. Buy one. It will center you and improve your work, whether high prose, dirty limericks, or ConEd bills. And, as a microcosm of your home, your desk deserves ornament. Fill it with the things that comfort and please you, not just a green banker’s lamp and a rolodex. Personalize. You’re a car guy, and your desk should reflect as much. These are the goods. *On the Road* doesn’t necessarily need a sequel, but why not try?

**Pininfarina Pen, $119**

![inline\_pen.jpg](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/content/archive-images/inline_pen.jpg>)
**Brookstone**

Modeled after the design house’s Cambiano concept car, this [Pininfarina pen](<https://www.brookstone.com/napkin-forever-cambiano-desk-pencil-set/980952p.html?bkeid=compare%7cmercent%7cgooglebaseads%7csearch&mr:trackingCode=C5173E2E-F62B-E511-80F6-0050569437F6&mr:referralID=NA&mr:device=c&mr:adType=plaonline&mr:ad=78735697044&mr:keyword=&mr:match=&mr:tid=kwd-51320962143&mr:ploc=1023191&mr:iloc=&mr:store=&mr:filter=51320962143&gclid=Cj0KEQiA0-GxBRDWsePx0pPtp4sBEiQACuTLNtaNUWd9tRrG3oB3Knhk4Se8PS2Sk9XoyLWPZ0uEy_gaAsac8P8HAQ>) is about the cheapest way to sample the company’s style. It marks smoothly, like a pencil, and is handmade in Italy. The second cheapest Pininfarina product? Probably a [Cadillac Allante](<https://www.thedrive.com/vintage/442/this-cadillac-allant-giveaway-is-proof-american-apparel-is-bankrupt>).

**Desk Clock, fashioned from a Caterham F1 gear, $59**

![inline\_clock.jpg](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/content/archive-images/inline_clock.jpg>)
**Nathan O'Dell**

British shop Ledon Gifts buys busted F1 parts by the box and fashions fantastic lamps and clocks. [This little charmer](<https://www.etsy.com/listing/227536409/caterham-f1-gear-desk-table-clock-guys?ref=shop_home_active_10>) started life as a gear in Caterham’s 2012 Formula 1 car.

**Bentley Heritage Goggles, $178**

![inline\_goggles.jpg](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/content/archive-images/inline_goggles.jpg>)
**Bentley Motors**

The great thing about paperweights? Anything can be a paperweight, should it have the requisite heft. These chrome, leather and glass vintage-style [goggles from Bentley](<https://shop.bentleymotors.com/en/for-him/accessories/heritage-goggles/>) do the trick. They’ll also come in handy once you climb the ladder and succumb to buying that Morgan 3 Wheeler.

**Antica Cartotecnica Notebooks, $30**

![inline\_books.jpg](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/content/archive-images/inline_books.jpg>)
**Mr. Porter**

With three convenient sizes, keep one [Cartotecnica notebook](<https://www.mrporter.com/en-us/mens/antica_cartotecnica/set-of-three-notebooks/543599>) in your jacket, one in the car and one on the desk. No matter where you are, you’ll have paper to jot down ideas; one of them is bound to be gold.

**Industrial Desk Lamp, $100**

![inline\_lamp.jpg](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/content/archive-images/inline_lamp.jpg>)
**Vintage Ironworks**

This classic steel electrical box has been remade into a [desk lamp](<https://www.etsy.com/listing/214709728/industrial-table-desk-lamp-charging?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=industrial%20desk%20lamp&ref=sr_gallery_29>) that, handily, retains its charging abilities. No more tripping over phone-charging cords—praise be. The reproduction Edison bulb casts a warm glow, and its twisted filaments are ripe for pondering.

***Mac’s Automotive Chemicals* Ashtray, $16**

![inline\_ashtray.jpg](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/content/archive-images/inline_ashtray.jpg>)
**Vintage Gypsies**

Tobacco isn’t a means to great work, but it is a superb catalyst to procrastination, which is. If you’re going to puff, set down your cig in this antique [Mac’s Chemicals ashtray](<https://www.etsy.com/listing/199361745/macs-automotive-chemicals-ashtray?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=automotive%20desk&ref=sr_gallery_5>), for a hint of the thrill of smoking in a chemical processing plant with none of the risk of combustion.

## Author
Ben Keeshin is a former staff writer for Maxim, and before that, contributed writing to the digital sides of Road & Track and Vanity Fair.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://twitter.com/BnKshn>)