Galen Leather Desk Pad Review: A Beautiful, Unique Hand-Made Treasure

Over the last couple of years I’ve been working from home nearly every day. Because of this I upgraded my desk and desk accessories to make things more comfortable for me. 

Since I work at my desk more, I was looking into purchasing a leather desk pad for my desk. 

Desk Pad By Galen Leather: A review

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At that time Galen Leather reached out to me to ask if I was interested in reviewing their leather journals. Since I have about a million leather journals, I asked to review their leather desk pad instead. I was already looking at Etsy and Amazon daily trying to find something I’d like, so this worked out well 🙂

I’m grateful to Galen Leather for sending me a gift of the leather desk pad to review for you. Even though they gave me this gift, this review is based on my opinions only and Galen Leather has not influenced this in any way. 

The desk pad comes in a couple of sizes 15” X 24 “  and  18” X 32”. I chose to get the smaller one because I wanted something that would fit my keyboard and mouse while still allowing me to have enough space if I wanted to use my Sketchboard Pro with my iPad. 

Galen Leather Desk Pad with keyboard and mouse

There are several colors to choose from. I went back and forth but finally chose the Crazy Horse Tan because it was the color that most appealed to me at the time. 

The desk pad was sent to me lightning fast! I was impressed since I thought it was going to take several weeks, but arrived incredibly quickly. It was packaged in a tube and a canvas bag. It was protected so well and was fun to open. 

I was a little worried that it would be hard to flatten out since it was rolled up in the tube, but it flattened pretty quickly with just my keyboard and mouse on it. 

Impressions

It’s obvious that this is a high quality product. It is not mass produced so you will be getting something unique and special when you order from Galen Leather. 

I would definitely describe the desk pad as rustic. It shows all the natural markings and has variations in color and texture. It’s pretty neat looking. I like that it’s not just a boring brown rectangle. It’s kind of fancy 😉 

The Galen Leather Desk Pad is super pretty

It is a thick piece of leather. It doesn’t have any stitching or anything like that. It seems to be a good quality leather. 

It is neither smooth nor soft. Let me revise, it is smooth in some places and very textured and rough in others. As it is a full grain leather, it shows the natural variation of the leather. 

The size I chose was perfect for my keyboard and mouse so I was glad I picked that. It’s also small enough that I can get it out of the way when I need to. 

The  negative (to me) is that this leather is somewhat “precious.” The leather that I picked is one that will show every scratch and mark. I feel like if I even look at it it will have a new scratch on it. 

If you like leather that patinas and shows scratches, scruffs, and marks you will absolutely love this. 

If you’re someone who likes things to stay looking like new, skip this type of leather. 

Outside of work hours, I use my desk for drawing, painting, and creating all sorts of mixed media art. I usually have this desk pad covered with a silicone cover or a craft mat so that I don’t get any water or paint on it. I don’t think this leather would survive even the smallest accident. 

The other day I put away my silicone mat, cleaned things up and noticed the desk pad seemed a little dry so I used some leather conditioner on it. It looked pretty nice and I was pretty pleased with how that turned out. (I used this leather conditioner from Amazon). 

But the next day I noticed that it had a ton of new scratches on it. I don’t know if it was from moving my keyboard around (it was the area where I set my keyboard) or what happened. It shows marks very easily, which kind of stresses me out. (See below)

Galen Leather Desk Pad showing scratches

But, I’m pretty sure that’s also part of the charm of this type of leather once you get past that stress. 

My Opinion

I’m super grateful that Galen Leather sent me this cool desk pad. It is a high quality piece of leather and would be great for someone who is using their desk for primarily computer work. It will be interesting to see how this leather patinas over time. It is already quite pretty:

Galen leather desk pad with sketchbook

The variations in the leather are pretty neat and I think someone who likes to see their life on their leather will absolutely love this. (You know who you are – Janet Leather VDS people 🙂 ). 

Since I use my desk for a lot of messy things, I find myself removing it or covering it up a lot because I’m scared to wreck it. Art journaling plus a desk pad that is somewhat fragile when it comes to scratches and scuffs equals a hot mess. 

I probably should have researched the leather types a bit more before choosing this color because of my use case. It is a beautiful desk pad when using with regular office stuff 😉 

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