Standing Desk & Drafting Table - All in one.

In college I stood up to study, do homework, pace around, invent things, it was a habit that I thoroughly enjoyed.
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While starting up the business I tried to find the most appropriate good looking desk I could find. It had curves, storage, and was corner desk that acted like a mini L shaped desk. It worked great in our little 11x7 closet office.

The problem with that little desk is that I sat all day long. I gained a good 15lbs after starting my own web design business. It wasn’t healthy.

After moving to a bigger office and realizing the opportunity I had to finally have enough room to play with multiple work spaces and see what I really needed, I built a standing desk.

This isn’t your ordinary standing desk, it’s a drafting table too. The whole front of the top rests on an aluminum pipe, and the back latches down to a 2x4 so it doesn’t flip up on you randomly. So when I want off of the computer to go back to the stone-age of pencil and paper, I unlatch the table locks, prop the top on some books, and have a drafting table to work with. I often have the computer on it while it’s tilted to raise my screen up a little bit.

The whole frame is made from cedar 4x4 posts. It’s beefy. I used pocket holes and wood glue to put the rectangle sides together. The horizontal piece on the floor is just held in with 7” long lag bolts that are maybe 1/2” thick.

How did I figure out the measurements? The height is up to my elbows (almost) and the width was just the size of that top piece of inch thick butcher block-ish board (like this one) . They sell those big pieces at the major orange and blue handyman stores.

So far I love it. A friend gave me an old drafting chair that helps alleviate some back pain throughout the day. I feel more active standing up and I don’t go home feeling worthless. I walk around my office randomly and I feel like I get a lot more done. I’ve even lost 10lbs by not sitting on my butt all day (and taking my own lunch to work).

I kept the design very minimal. I wanted it to look a little contemporary and not like anything you could find in the stores. Hopefully I can wrap the walls in a counter top the same height as the desk to make the workspace in the office HUGE.

Be sure to checkout another standing desk I built, photographed in a walnut grove...!