The thing nobody tells you about modern desks is that "modern" often means thin. Thin legs, thin top, thin patience for anything heavier than a laptop and a coffee mug. I learned that the hard way when a desk I loved the look of started to bow in the middle after about four months of actual use, monitor, books, the whole business. Still worth having one, just worth knowing what you're buying before the wobble starts.
A good modern desk fits almost anywhere you need a clean line and a small footprint, which is really the whole point of the style. A spare bedroom doing double duty as an office, a corner of a living room, a rental where you can't mount anything to the wall and need something freestanding that doesn't look like it belongs in a cubicle. It suits rooms with natural light more than dim ones, since the plainer finishes and slimmer frames tend to show up best when there's something to catch on the surface. In a dark corner, the simplicity can read as cold rather than calm.
Over time, what separates the ones worth keeping from the ones you'll be replacing in a year comes down to the materials under the finish. A solid wood or properly finished laminate top will take years of mugs, laptop heat, and the occasional ink stain without much drama, a quick wipe and it's fine. Thinner veneers chip at the corners, and once that happens there's no fixing it, only hiding it with a plant or a stack of books. Metal legs hold their shape through a move far better than anything with a lot of fussy joinery, which matters more than people think once you've carried one down two flights of stairs.
When you're looking at one in person, or the day it shows up at your door, check how the top attaches to the legs. Screwed into solid blocks is sturdy, screwed into thin particleboard with no reinforcement means it will loosen within a year of normal use, drawer opening and closing, leaning on it while you reach for something. Run a hand along the underside for rough edges, since that's where the cheaper ones cut corners nobody photographs. And give it a gentle push from the side, not just straight down, to see if it racks. If it shifts more than a little, it will shift more every month after that.
The right modern desk suits a home that needs a workspace to disappear quietly into a room when the day's done, not dominate it.
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