A standing desk makes a lot of sense in a small home office. You're at it all day, the room is often a box room or a corner of the bedroom, and there's no space for a second desk to stand at. The trick is picking one that fits the room and still goes high enough for you.
Start with the height range
Every electric desk lists a lowest and highest height. Most of ours sit between about 72cm and 118cm. The low end matters for sitting. A standard desk is around 73cm to 75cm high, so anything that goes down to 72cm suits most people in a normal office chair.
The top end matters for standing. A rough guide is to set the desk at elbow height, with your arms relaxed by your sides and bent at 90 degrees. For someone around 5ft 6in (168cm) that works out at roughly 105cm. For someone over 6ft (183cm) it's closer to 115cm, so if you're tall, check the maximum height before you buy.
Pick a desktop that fits the room
Measure the wall it's going against. Leave a few centimetres of clearance at the back, as the desk moves up and down past windowsills, radiators and sockets.
- 80 x 48cm to 100 x 60cm: one monitor or a laptop. Fits a box room or a bedroom corner.
- 120 x 60cm: the usual size. One large monitor or two smaller ones, with room for a notepad.
- 140 x 70cm to 160 x 80cm: two monitors side by side, or a lot of paperwork.
Depth is easy to overlook. A 60cm deep desk leaves room for a monitor at a comfortable distance. On a shallow desk, a large screen ends up close to your face.
The compact electric standing desk is a good small-room option. It goes from 71cm to 115cm, has three memory presets, and comes in sizes from 80 x 48cm up to 160 x 60cm.
Memory presets and weight limits
Memory buttons save your sitting and standing heights, so one press moves you from one to the other. Two presets is plenty for one person. If the desk is shared, three or four is handier.
The 4-memory electric standing desk rises from 72cm to 118cm, takes up to 80kg, and comes in 120 x 60cm, 140 x 70cm and 160 x 80cm. The 2-memory electric standing desk goes from 72cm to 116cm and comes in a long list of sizes, from 100 x 60cm to 160 x 90cm, some with a monitor stand.
Check the weight limit if you use a heavy monitor arm, keep a desktop PC on the desk or have speakers on it. Most of our electric desks are rated for 70kg to 80kg, which is plenty for a normal setup.
Storage in a small room
In a tight room, a desk with its own storage saves finding space for a set of drawers. The standing desk with 3 drawers has fabric drawers, a monitor shelf, and two sockets and two USB ports built in. It adjusts from 78cm to 120cm with three memory presets.
Cable management matters more on a standing desk than on a fixed one, since everything moves. Leave enough slack in the monitor and power cables for the full height, and gather them with a cable tray or clips so nothing snags on the way up.
If there's no room for a full desk
Two other options are in the same range. A desk converter sits on your existing desk or kitchen table and lifts the keyboard and screen. A mobile pneumatic desk on wheels, like the tilting mobile standing desk, adjusts from 71cm to 107.5cm with one hand and rolls out of the way when you're finished.
Don't expect to stand all day, either. Most people start with 20 or 30 minutes at a time and build up from there. Switching regularly tends to be more comfortable than standing for hours.
Delivery and assembly
Electric standing desks arrive flat packed with the tools included. Browse all our standing desks. Delivery is free to the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, and most orders arrive in 3 to 7 days.