A standing desk for $22

Colin Nederkoorn -

I’ve been interested in standing desks for a while. I keep reading things like: he who sits the most dies the soonest. All the options online are expensive. Until now.  Ryan Witt and I combined our brains to see if we could come up with a better solution:

Introducing The Standesk 2200

It’s a cheap solution made from Ikea parts for as low as $22. And you just put it on top of your existing desk.

What do you want from a standing desk?

Ergonomics are pretty simple. You want your set up to look like this:

There are really 2 parts of this: monitor height and keyboard height. The key thing is: you don’t want your monitor and keyboard to be on the same surface. You’ll get neck cramps, or cut off blood circulation to your fingers.

Building a standing desk on a regular desk

When you’re working in a coworking space (we’re in General Assembly in New York) or in a regular office, the friction to go from sitting to standing is usually high:

  • The cheapest adjustable standing desks are around $800 (geekdesk)
  • You already have an existing desk in your workspace
  • Your boss would rather you die in your chair than live on your feet

Marco Arment while working at Tumblr built his standing desk from stacking cans of soda stacking cans. Ryan and I did it with parts from Ikea for $22 (+ tax)

So, what’s the recipe?

Note: Make sure you get an 11 inch shelf + 11 inch brackets. This means you don’t need to screw in the shelf to the bracket (unless you want to).

Assembly Instructions (PDF)

Download the instructions

Who’s using this design?

Hundreds and hundreds of people have posted their build pictures on twitter #standesk2200 or elsewhere online. If you build it please share your pics!

The deluxe

Consider getting yourself another Lack Side Table ($7.99) to double the surface area for your monitor. This option gives you space for a laptop stand.

Also consider the Dioder LED set ($34.99) to add some color to your desk. It gives it that lowrider feel. Though be wary, that the LED lights are more expensive than the entire standing desk.