Wednesday, 22 May 2013
Modern dry-erase standing desk
Materials: Linnmon high-gloss white tabletop (59x29½); Expedit 4x2 shelving unit; 2 Expedit drawer inserts, high-gloss white; 2 Expedit door inserts; 12 Capita legs; Lack shelf, high gloss red (43¼x10¼)
Description: My wife and I have wanted to put together a standing desk for a long time, and took our recent move as an opportunity to finally do it. After spending a lot of time on Ikea Hackers and ikea.ca, a couple of visits to Ikea, and several draft designs, we've ended up with this, and we think it's pretty awesome. Our favorite part is that the desk itself functions as a white-board.
When designing yours, you'll want to keep in mind the target height of your desk, and account for it by varying the legs you use. Ikea offers the Capita legs in 3 different heights, so by combining them you should be able to get pretty close to your desired height. In our case, I'm about 5'11" and my wife's probably 5'3" or 5'4". Accounting for the thickness of the tabletop itself, our final desk height is 41", which is pretty comfortable for both of us.
Ingredients:
- Linnmon high-gloss white tabletop (59x29½): $39.00
- Expedit 4x2 shelving unit (approximately 31x15½ x58½ ): $79.00
- 2 Expedit drawer inserts, high-gloss white: 2 x $25.00
- 2 Expedit door inserts (high-gloss red & high-gloss white): 2 x $15.00
- 12 Capita legs (4¾â€): 3 x $16.99
- Lack shelf, high gloss red (43¼x10¼): $24.99
Recipe:
- Build the Expedit, in our case leaving out one of the smaller shelves to make room for the computer.
> NOTE: Looking at the Expedit in the horizontal position, the vertical separators are indispensable. In my opinion, you would be ill-advised to leave out any of those, as they provide structural support.
- Drill 6 Capita legs into the bottom of the Expedit. The Expedit seemed to be made of solid wood, so a drill was necessary but the capita legs feel nice and stable.
> Ikea makes a caster set designed specifically to support the Expedit in its horizontal position, and they use 6 casters, including 1 pair to support the middle of the unit. Based on that, I decided to use 6 Capita legs, including 2 for support in the middle.
- Break out the Linnmon tabletop, and line it up on top of the Expedit. Figure out where the Expedit will be below it, and mark the widest (most stable) possible locations for the other 5 (yes 5) Capita legs.
> Given that there wouldn'€™t be much weight on the desktop and that I wanted to use the space between the Expedit and Linnmon for storage of stuff, I decided not to use a Capital in the middle in front. You can sort of see in one of the photos what I mean: There are 3 legs along the back of the tabletop, but only 2 in front.
> When you'€™re thinking about how you want to position everything, keep in mind that the further back you set the Expedit under the Linnmon, the harder it'll be to get at those drawers. We set the Expedit about 4†back under the tabletop.
- Drill holes for the capita legs in the Linnmon, and screw them in. Note that the edges of the Linnmon are solid wood, so the outside 4 legs are good. But the center of the desktop is fibreboard, or hollow filled, or whatever, so be gentle with that center Capita. It'€™s only there to provide support, and you'€™re only drilling it in to prevent it from sliding around.
- Now figure out how high you want your monitors. "€œErgonomics" says that the top of the monitor should be right around eye level when looking straight forward.
- If you'€™re going to use the lack shelf to support your monitors, FIND STUDS IN YOUR WALL. If you screw the shelf into drywall or particle board and put two monitors on it (possibly even one monitor), it's liable to just rip right out of the wall, wrecking everything from your wall to the Expedit below, including your monitor. If you don’t know how to find studs or aren't comfortable, you have lots of other options: prop the monitors up on books; get another piece from Ikea (we considered the Alex Alex shelf with drawer) that you can just sit on the desktop), get a monitor riser from another shop.
> Quick note: If you're going to rest your monitors directly on the desktop, they'€™re going to add a lot of weight to the back of the desktop, and depending on how you'€™ve placed your Linnmon on top of the Expedit, it may not have a lot of support at the back. If this is the case, the monitors might be heavy enough to flip the desktop up. You can address this in a number of ways, but one option is the Vika Byske legs which extend tall enough to provide support at the back of the tabletop. Even one in the center of the table would probably be enough.
- There you have it. Load in the drawers and doors (if you'€™re using them), connect everything, and you'€™re good to go.
~ Liohn Sherer, Montreal, QC, Canada
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