Stand Up Desks vs Converters
I’m looking for the best stand up desk for what I need in my home office. Deciding between a stand up desk and a converter desk inspired me to do a lot of research before buying either.
I am asking a lot of questions and doing a lot of research. Some of my friends have standing desks and I started thinking I should get one too.
The main thing that was holding me back from buying the first one I saw on Amazon was that they don’t have drawers or storage space.
Every stand up desk I found was just the desk, no storage, no drawers.
Then I found out that I could use a converter desk. These are also called, desk risers. Office Depot carries them as well as Amazon and Wayfair at the time I wrote this post.
I could actually buy any desk I wanted and then add the converter desk on top of my new desk to turn my desk into a stand-up desk.
When I was at my daughter’s house I started using her counter in between her kitchen and dining room. It was higher than my counters at home where we sit on bar stools to eat breakfast. Her bar counter was much higher and was perfect to put my laptop on to work standing up which I did a lot.
I felt so much better not sitting all day. And I got my Apple Watch standing goal met quickly each day:). Great side benefit!
I love Ikea. I buy my furniture from Ikea, Wayfair, and Amazon. I buy a lot of my office furniture from Office Depot and Amazon.
I looked at the stand-up desks at Ikea and found a white one. I love white furniture. It makes the rooms look so much bigger and it makes everything look so clean.
But the desk at Ikea did not meet with all my expectations. It was also quite pricey.
Adjustable Standing Desk Solutions
The first time I looked at the stand up desks at Office Depot; they only had really ugly brown which looks like fake wood, like that old fashioned paneling kind of wood from the ‘70s. Still, they don’t have great options. I took photos of what they have as part of my research. They have not gotten any better.
The design for standing desks needs some innovation and creativity!
GOSH! I wish they had drawers!
I have been researching the stand up desk options for a couple of years now. I have learned a lot as I went through all this research. I think I keep waiting until the drawers appear.
Office depot has the plain what I consider to be ugly stand-up desks and they now have some other styles.
They have one style that has computer mounts in it. I like that idea.
Most of the stand-up desks are called:
Sit-stand Height-Adjustable desk
A word that kept popping up in the descriptions of the desks is: Pneumatic
Pneumatic means to be powered by gas or air under pressure.
pneu·mat·ic
adjective
- 1.containing or operated by air or gas under pressure.”the machines with pneumatic loading are more efficient”
This kind of a desk will go up and down by the air pressure or gas.
There are also some with electric push-button controls
When I started looking for a stand-up desk solution, they were very expensive. The expense kind of deterred me. But now the prices have come down substantially. I am in the market to buy one right away!
For instance, at Office Depot,
- Realspace® Magellan Pneumatic Sit-Stand Height-Adjustable Desk was $399 last year and is down to $279 as of the date I wrote this post. The price may have changed up or down again since then but I remember about a year ago they were all over $400.
But then there are two I really think I am starting to like on Amazon. They are both standing desks. They are both white.
The difference is that one of them is a hand crank desk and the other is an electric desk with memory. There is about a $100 difference in price.
Here is the link to the one I put into my shopping cart at Amazon.
This link will take you right to the desk I am looking to buy and give you the current pricing:
I also like this desk because it does not take up a lot of space and it looks like it is not bulky looking.
This one is heavy steel construction with a white table top. It has good reviews and it says it is only 3 steps to put it together.
If you are going to use a stand up desk, I wondered why you would need it to be so big as some of them are, since you can’t really do a ton of other things at your desk when you are standing.
I would not do my journaling standing up. I would not do my crafting standing up all the time either. It looks to me like many of the stand up desks have a lot of wasted space.
Desk Risers or Converter Desks
For the desk risers or converter desks I am still trying to find ones that look nice. The ones in the lower price ranges look really bulky and yet don’t leave a lot of room for your additional things you need on your desk like notebooks, planner, journal, etc.
There are SO many more options now than even a year ago, so this gives me hope I will find one I like.
White is my favorite color for most furniture pieces as it makes your space look larger and it is more soothing. I am not into the fake wood colors at all.
I am looking at the Ergotron WorkFit-T Sit-Stand Desktop Workstation. The photos at Office Depot show it in white but the website says it comes in black. This is the one I am thinking would be great on top of a nice white desk that has drawers in it and storage space. When I checked though, the white one is not available. I also found it on Amazon for a little less but check the pricing as prices change:
This converter desk or desk riser, does not even need to be assembled. I like that part and I am willing to pay a little more to have things easier on me.
There are no cranks or motors to have to deal with. It has a hand brake that you use to lower or rise the surface position.
Standing desk reviews
I will do some reviews for you on the different desks I try out and give you my feedback so you can decide the best way for you to go on getting a stand up desk or the desk riser ( converter desk).
I thought that I would be leaning more to the converter desk or desk riser because of the storage issue I talked about but as I am looking and researching stand up desks, I am starting to lean more towards the decision of buying the stand up desk and then another set of drawers or cabinet/drawers for my storage on the other side of my office.
I am leaning this way mainly because I don’t like the bulky look of the desk risers. I think they take up too much space on a desk. And I do have enough room in my second office for the stand up desk and separate storage drawers and cabinet. My smaller office where my stand up desk is going to be is only a 10’ x 10’ room and there is still plenty of room for both.
Anti- Fatigue Mats
If you are standing on hard tile, you may want to get an Anti-Fatigue mat. The Safco® Anti-Fatigue Mat is a rectangular mat that is 1 inch thick.
This is the one I have from Amazon:
I don’t like the color of it for my office but if you are on hard tile, it may be time to suck up the fact that it is not a great color.
At least you won’t see your feet marks on it as time goes on. I have wood floors in both of my offices which are much softer and easier on my feet than tile is.
You can read the other articles I wrote about my search for the perfect stand up desk solution for me and my needs. They may answer questions similar to yours.
I hope this information will help you to make your own informed decision and that you don’t have to spend almost 2 years researching about stand up desks and converter desks before you decide which one to get!
Related Questions:
1. How do you set up a standing desk?
It depends on what type of standing desk you have. If you are using the fixed-height standing desk, there is not much to set up. In case it’s too low for you, use a standing desk converter to achieve the height that is suitable for you.
If you are using the manual adjustable standing desk, you can adjust the height by pushing the crank on the side of the desk. Once you are able to achieve your desired height, you can lock the crank so the height of the desk remains in place.
For electric adjustable standing desk, it comes with a control panel that allows you to store a number of heights (depending on the brand) which you can choose whenever you need to.
When you buy a standing desk, make sure to check for the user manual. It comes in handy specially when setting up your standing desk for the first time.
2. How long should you use a standing desk?
According to experts, the maximum time you should stand without interruption is 2 hours. However, it is common sense to sit and relax once you feel sensation on your feet or pain on your legs or back.
You are allowed to sit even when you are using a standing desk. It is recommended to do some light stretching or a few steps back and forth after every 2 hours of standing still.
There are times when you are too focused on your task that you choose to ignore what you feel.
To ensure that you don’t overdo standing, you can use a stand up desk timer or set up your phone to alarm every 2 hours to remind you to relax your feet, move a little, and sit.