I had always been aware of the daggy manual standing desk accessories that you saw in offices prior to last year, but the pandemic made me really look at my home office setup situation and after doing a bit of research I was surprised to see just how accessible fully functional standing desks had become.
A friend had alerted me to a brand called Desky, and soon enough, I found a 1500mm wide Desky Hardwood in White Ash at my doorstep. The desk itself came with three boxes (plus two bonus boxes for some extras that came along wit the desk that I’ll touch on later). The table top was obviously in a box, and super well packaged given it was a heavy piece of wood, and two boxes containing the legs, motor and all of that good stuff, which again were all really clearly labelled and well packaged as to not get damaged.
Whilst the desk does require you to build everything, requiring you to do everything from attaching the legs, and brackets that they attach into, it was really straight forward thanks to an email that Desky send that has an instructional video as well as a physical instruction manual that runs through each step and very clearly details which parts are needed at what step. It did get a little bit confusing one or two steps, but each of my minor concerns were alleviated very quickly by referring to both the instruction manual and video.
After popping your legs on (which is the bulk of the operation), you’re instructed to attach the small Desky control panel (on either the left or right side) before plugging it into the control box and then subsequently to your mains power. Flipping the desk for the first time after popping the legs on revealed a very solid desk that feels like it has been professionally built, rather than me shoddily banging it together, and naturally the White Ash wood selection that I had chosen looks absolutely gorgeous, as I’m sure the other hardwood options do too.
If the starting price of $1,199 for the hardwood range is a bit above your a bit above your price range (I really think it’s worth the extra money) the Desky electric standing desks do start at $549, with extremely similar functionality, but obviously no that premium hardwood finish.
Plugging the Desky desk is where the fun really began. This specific model has a Dual Lifting System that is capable of lifting up to 140kg of weight at 36mm per second. It’s able to quickly move from a seated height of 60 cm to a standing height of 125 cm and you’re able to manually adjust the height or you can assign a pre-selected height to the four numbered buttons on the control panel.
I was a little bit unsure how much I’d opt to stand up before getting the desk, but I found myself standing at least once in the morning and then for the entire afternoon and left it in the standing position during the evening, so that if I did come and go from my desk to quickly write an article, I could just walk up to it, smash out what I needed and then walk away without spending too much time seated at my desk.
DESKY’S CABLE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM + BUILT IN POWER POINTS
One of the best parts about getting into the Desky ecosystem is the fact that they provide so many accessories and extras that seamlessly work with the desk that you’ve invested in. I opted to get an integrated cable channel + 8 built-in power ports. I’d at last recommend that you get the integrated cable channel which lets you neatly run all your cords at the back of the desk, without messily having cords hanging everywhere.
You can take that one step further with what quickly became one of my favourite parts of the Desky experience. This is the built-in powerboards, that seamlessly snap into the integrated cable channel. You can opt for either 4 or 8 ($138/$228) and the magic of this is that you can literally run one cord from your desk to mains power, and then have literally everything on your desk plug straight into the built in power adaptors at the back of your desk. You could probably achieve something similar by taping power boards to the bottom of your desk, but this option is that seamless that I really think it’s worth the extra money.
Desky also provides a bunch of cable ties and such to neatly sort your cables. I’ll admit, my setup still needs a bit of work, but as you can see in the image of my desk, none of these cables are visible even though you’d probably never believe it by looking at this close-up photo.
DESKY’S DUAL MONITOR ARM
The other added extra I decided to go for was the Desky Dual Monitor Arm, which is a little bit pricey at $269 but did really finish this setup nicely. It allowed me to seamlessly place two monitors (a 32″ and 27″) straight into two gas lift arms and seamlessly adjust them to the exact position I was after. The mount seamlessly clamps onto the back of your desk and feels really solid on the desk with no wiggle.
Both arms have built in cable management, which again, really just allows you to have every single cable out of the way, and allows you to have not a single cable visible apart from the main power cord that needs to connect from your desk to mains power.
Desky says that this one supports up to 10kg and 27″ wide, but I was able to fit a 32″ in landscape as well as 27″ in portrait and still have them exactly where I needed them. Unlike other dual mounts, the process for putting my monitors on this mount was much easier, with minimal screwing required.
WHO SHOULD OPT FOR A DESKY STANDING DESK?
I think in this day and age, if you’re spending more than an hour or two at a desk either for work or for gaming, it’s worth looking at an electric standing desk. Not only does it allow you to hide your cables perfectly and look damn nice, you’ll be surprised with how much standing up at intervals throughout the day can improve how your body feels and also keep your motivation lasting longer.
If you’re wanting something a bit more shiny, Desky do have a number of gaming desks too, which have LEDs and the likes. You can find that range HERE.
