Buoyed by research that suggests long periods of sedentary activity can make you generally more likely to die — and that being upright makes you generally more alert — the standing-desk movement has developed an almost cult-like devotion among workplace self-improvement types.
But standing desks are expensive — at least a few hundred dollars, and high-end adjustable models easily a few thousand dollars. And not all offices are accommodating when it comes to swapping out company-issue equipment that may be bolted to the floor.
But I recently found a dirt-cheap and reasonably low-tech solution at the bottom of a Google-search rabbit hole on It’s a do-it-yourself desk made by (the omnipresent Lack model — a simple, boxy design). That’s pretty much it. Components total about $25. “I first tried to get the height right, using boxes and things I had around the office,” says Colin Nederkoorn, the contraption’s inventor and founder of customer.io, an e-mail marketing company. “Then we wondered: Could we do something with off-the-shelf Ikea parts?”
The particle-board creation, which Nederkoorn calls the Standesk 2200, sits on top of your normal desk, with the monitor resting on the Lack table and the keyboard calling the shelf home. Instructions and comments can be seen on Nederkoorn’s other site, iamnotaprogrammer.com.
I field-tested Nederkoorn’s plans and found the Standesk to be pretty solid and remarkably easy to construct. Minus the requisite trip to Ikea setup should take you less than 15 minutes if you have some power tools on hand — even if you’re not exactly the office handyman or woman.
I found the table height to be perfect for maintaining good posture while staring at a screen, and installing the shelf yourself gives you the opportunity to put it at the ideal position for your height.
The desk has some drawbacks. “I still wish it had more weight,” Nederkoorn says. “The desk is really light. … if you get tired from standing and lean on the shelf, the whole thing can tip over.” And unlike expensive professional models, you can’t adjust the Standesk 2000 to alternate between sitting and standing height.
But solving problems is what the Internet is for. After Nederkoorn posted his invention in 2012, standing desk acolytes took to his site’s comments section to post their own takes on the project. You can find variations that are taller, wider (for those of us who rock multiple monitors), blinged out with flair, or otherwise designed for their creators.
“I love the idea of people improving on the original design,” Nederkoorn says. “Some people have found that using bolts in the legs [is] more secure. Other people have decided to use the Lack coffee table instead of the side table.”
Since Nederkoorn first shared his contraption, the posted instructions have been viewed by more than 1.1 million peoplet. Bottom line: This thing works, and it’s remarkably flexible and cheap. Since full workdays on one’s feet can be more taxing than theoretical standing-desk fans anticipate, it’s worth testing the low-fi version before going all in with a huge, expensive standing desk.
