DIY Sitting/Standing desk

[lairpie]

This summer (after I get caught up a bit better on all the NF dev work and my carpentry back log) I plan to build a big 2 person combo sitting/standing desk for my wife and I. We've been planning this for a while, but with me working from home, it gets bumped up in priority a bit. We'll basically be taking over a ~12 foot wall, floor to ceiling. Needs spots for 2 monitors for my wife and 3 for me that all slide up and down to work for either sitting or standing. Keyboard and mouse platforms also need to slide up and down. We'll probably keep the 30 inch TV as well somewhere high, between us, though not 100% on that. Ideally we'd also like to have a closed wooden box around our towers with an exhaust pipe out from the computers. The last thing we need in our summers is more heat inside the loft. Anyone ever built anything like that, even a scaled down version and have any pictures or experiences to share?

[Nubbins McGee]

I have not, however, the idea of a convertible stand/sit space with moving monitors intrigues the hell out of me.  I'm a total wood geek and have a dozen or so projects going at any one time.  I might give this a little thought.  

[IslandGirl_Becks]

My bf  built me a monstrous standing desk from birch plywood and 2x4's, finished beautifully in poly and waxed. I don't need a monitor stand, but we'd talked about putting up a back shelf to hold speakers and other monitors if I wanted them. Standing desks I've had at other jobs had clamp or bolt on monitor stands. 

 

 

(it's not rotated if you click on it...)

[lairpie]

First, it's amazing how nice something made of 2x4s and plywood can look with a little planning and finishing, huh.

 

Yeah, I have a lot of days where I spend 10-12 hours at the desk and as cool as standing desks are, you're not really supposed to stand in one place for 10 hours anymore than you're supposed to sit in one place for that long. That's why i'm going for convertible. There's lots of pictures online of people's desk creations, but hoping to find some nerdy takes on it. I have to finish my daughter's shelf-headboard combo thing, build a rack for my canoe, and a couple little projects first, then decide if the dining room table or desk monster are next.

 

I think i could do a monitor holding thing that basically worked off using the weight of the monitor, on a small arm, to pinch it againts a vertical 1x6 or something. if need be, a slight depression at a few heights would definitely make that work. I'm less sure what to do about supporting the keyboard at standing height. Maybe something that telescoped out from behind the monitors after the monitors rise up to standing height. Once i get closer I'll build the whole thing in sketchup and see how it looks.

[lairpie]

Oh man: http://www.instructables.com/id/Hamster-Wheel-Standing-Desk/

[IslandGirl_Becks]

By "convertible," do you mean that you want a desk that moves up and down as a unit? Because your quickest option is probably an Ikea setup. I was originally inspired by a variety of Ikea Hacks desks. My personal favorite is the Expedit:

 

 

As to your comment about standing in one place for 10+ hours, I completely agree. I have a chair that I use as a leaning stool. One of my projects this weekend (along with finishing my work bench) is to build a stool for sitting and standing. Other friends with standing desks have drafting stools that they really like.

[lairpie]

I mean able to be used sitting or standing through some sort of moving pieces yes, but not necessarily that the whole surface moves up and down as a unit. Maybe over the weekend I'll try and draw a rough idea of what I'm thinking, but basically i'd want my monitors against the wall, without their bases, mounted where they could be adjusted up or down easily, then either the mouse/keyboard surface would have to move up to the right height or something swings out to set them on or something. about the same thing for my wife's conjoined desk. We'll probably frame the whole wall around our monitors in with various shelves, but that's sort of tertiary in design consideration to the primary use computing or the secondary "whatever else we work on on the desk surface."

[redtomato501]

A standing desk with a really tall optional chair? So, move the sitting height up to match the standing height? Less creative for the woodworking, but an easier fix...

[lairpie]

A standing desk with a really tall optional chair? So, move the sitting height up to match the standing height? Less creative for the woodworking, but an easier fix...

Definitely something I've considered, or even just like stilts for my current chair, to which I'm quite attached. I feel like the position of the keyboard compared to the monitor would be different sitting than standing, though I'm not sure on that.

[IslandGirl_Becks]

Definitely something I've considered, or even just like stilts for my current chair, to which I'm quite attached. I feel like the position of the keyboard compared to the monitor would be different sitting than standing, though I'm not sure on that.

 

It really isn't, from what I've seen. My monitors had a stand attaching them to my adjustable sit/stand desk, and were at the same height regardless. If you're at all worried about it, a pull-out/swinging keyboard tray would add some adaptability to your work level. Being able to adjust the angle of the monitor is sometimes useful... I got really bad glare when i was standing! 

[s-hamster]

I have a stand-up desk at work (crank style) and one at home (electronic). I just opted for the new IKEA Bekant sit/stand desk for home .It looks great and it's really much more convenient and smooth to raise/lower the desk. 

 

Although I commend building your own setup, I find that I have to shift the height regularly to be comfortable. 2cm lower and higher during the day lets me change position and thus allows me to stand longer. 

 

Combined it with a dualmonitor-arm (and the necessary ambient lighting) and you get this: 

 

 

 

And yes, that's a Fibit Charge HR box up there. I've been measuring my heart rate while standing and sitting. 

 

Can you guess what time I was sitting during this regular working day?

 

 

 

I'm standing almost full time at work and at home now. Occasionally sitting, but hardly more than an hour. If I want I can probably stand for 12 hours without problems

 

My current challenge is to stand stable on one leg (yoga) for more than 15 minutes.

[lairpie]

that's a pretty nice setup. Hopefully I'll get to drafting up the basic moving parts of my desk sometime before i forget how it works in my head. It's pretty cool to see the fitbit plot of your work day like that.

[IslandGirl_Becks]

Great setup, S-hamster! Love the clean desk space, especially the floating shelf above!

[s-hamster]

Great setup, S-hamster! Love the clean desk space, especially the floating shelf above!

 

Thanks, I've opted for the smaller version of the desk, because I found out that a larger desk area just invited more stuff. You can't mess up a small space too much, otherwise you can't work

 

that's a pretty nice setup. Hopefully I'll get to drafting up the basic moving parts of my desk sometime before i forget how it works in my head. It's pretty cool to see the fitbit plot of your work day like that.

 

 

How's the project going?

[lairpie]

So, I finally got fed up with sitting at my desk, but now we're going to move in a few months, so not going to put a lot of time into making a sweet desk setup until we move. Instead, I grabbed a random cabinet door and 2 wine boxes and set them on my desk. Then I put my monitors up by the TV. I can move the keyboard stand and put the monitors back down on the desk if I want to work sitting down for a while. If I like this height, I'll probably do something slightly less ghetto, but this should work for now to try it out.