Scratch Build – In Progress IKEA Standing Desk

I've started on my standing desk build

The desk is made from an IKEA Pax wardrobe, that will house:

• My 15" Macbook
• 27" Dell
• 24" Dell (Portrait)
• Logitech center + front speakers
• Logitech sub
• HP Laserjet
• APC UPS
• Charging station
• External HDs

These bits (Along with some other bits and bobs) lives inside one wardrobe. There will be a second wardrobe for additional storage, but I can't get that one built until I've had some workmen in to look at windows.

 

Here's the desk with the doors closed. There's a very good reason why I've mounted the handles sideways.

 

Here's a test fit of the inside (Before I fitted the doors)

The display 'stands' are purely temporary. I intend to fit a dark backboard behind them and use VESA mounts. Power + Display-port cables will be hidden in a hollow behind the backboard and the flimsy PAX back.

These niceties will have to wait though. I need to get power + phone wired in ASAP so I can get back to work

 

I was eagerly anticipating the start of this one since your interests thread went up. Nice looking start Now I need to get a house where I could fit a standup desk....(or decommission my normal desk)

Those wardrobes are very deep, In my minds eye it was smaller but with that depth you have there it looks like a really good idea.

 

Wires for electric city

Power comes in through a hole at the back of the UPS + Printer + Sub shelf, and feeds a switched 3-pin mains socket. This in turn feeds the UPS, which feeds everything else:

Note: Sub goes where the tools are sitting. Excuse the baby monitor, my girl is wired into the machine that goes ping at inconvenient moments.

The lower shelf is sized to fit four of my 9L really useful boxes and some other stuff too no doubt.

 

Next up is the power + data drawer, including an independently switched 8-Way for chargers (Wired into the UPS for surge but not battery backup), and (wired into the UPS for battery backup) surge protected 8-way that will feed laptop, primary display and external data drives.

The wiring is just looped over the back of the drawer at the moment. I'll re-route as necessary once everything has been in use for a short while.

 

Above the displays is a shelf with 26cm of clearance which is holding my battered old PC. The poor thing should really be put out to pasture but the i7 920 / GTX 285 combination is good enough for the very rare occasions it gets switched on.

I'll probably get some USB extensions to bring a couple of the rear ports down into the charging drawer so the kids can play Lego Indiana Jones on the cheap-arses wireless-less 360 controllers I bought. Wanna game? Yes. Like standing? No Touch luck kiddos, Mommy threw out her office chair.

The cables for the PC will drop through a notch I've cut in the rear of the shelf and pass behind the yet to be finalised backing board that the displays will be VESA mounted on.

Heat in the summer could be an issue if the PC was used regularly, but it isn't... so it isn't. If ever need to I can vent air from that top shelf with a small fan

 

Questions:

Okay, next on my 'buy the bits I need' list is the backing board for the displays and mounts for them. I'm currently thinking I'll get a sturdy board 98x79, paint it black and mount it a few centimetres in front of the hardboard PAX back.

The cavity behind this board will hide cables from the displays, the PC above and anything else I need to route that way.

What type of board to use? Thick MDF will be heavy for the size I need. Ply? I'll need to paint it black (Now that would make a good song title!).

So how do I mount this board? I want it to be load bearing through the sides of the wardrobe. After all this is all chip-board based flat-back and not 25mm MDF. I also want to ensure that anything I do can easily be dismantled. We aim to move in a year or two and I'll have to dismantle the flat-pack to take it with us. We now have nine PAX wardrobes here, that's a helluva lot of hassle. I don't want to add to it by making these additions complicated. It has to be mounted from the front, and therefore look 'reasonable'. I'm trying to avoid L shaped corner braces, or any solution that requires screws to dismantle.

I'm thinking of using four or six tower bolts on the sides of a board. These will slide into shallow holes I will drill in the wardrobe sides. How can I protect these holes so they survive? If I use standard round bolts, where (online) can I get a screw on protective thingamajig with a round hole? I'm thinking of something like the brackets you get to support wardrobe rails (but smaller) or the metal plates you put over bird boxes to stop woodpeckers. If I had some metal sheet, and a lot more time I'd make my own. I just want a strong 'socket' I can screw into 1cm thick chipboard to spread the load and protect a hole of no more than say 8mm diameter.

Once I've got the board mounting sorted I'll need to VESA mount the displays. The landscape 27" can sit flush against the board using any number of mounts, but the 24" portrait HAS to sit at the 30 degree angle you see in the pics. I need it angled so I can use it, and it simply won't fit any other way.

Does anyone have good recommendations for an adjustable 100mm VESA mount that will hold a 24" screen out & angled from the wall? Saggy screens are a no no, as are screens that crash-bang-wallop onto the "you paid how much?" macbook that will live under them.

As the alignment of the screens has to be spot on (I have zero clearance), having the back board removable will help. I can adjust mount positions externally before bolting the board in its final location.

 

I've gone down the decommissioning route, but then my work machine is a Macbook so I can undock and work on the sofa if needed

I've gone from a desk that was 160cm and accommodated three screens in a row, to one that is 98cm wide and just fits two. It's quite liberating in a way but I've got to get the displays mounted correctly.... I currently don't have anywhere to put the Macbook which means a work desk without a work computer is less productive than it could be

 

So how do I mount this board?
French Cleats?

FYI - I have 2 PCs that run in a closet (1 atom with 6 HDDs the other a GPU+2500K+8HDDs) I have a passive ventilation system: the PCs are on a piece of plywood on the floor. To the right of both machines at floor level is a dual wide vent grate into the room. At the top of the closet is a dual wide vent next to the ceiling (next to the cold air return). Everything stays cool enough

 

chip board does not take grain end screws very well... especially repeatedly. Perhaps some small Cross Dowels if you want to go this route in the backer board?

 

Unfortunately not. The back of the PAX is flimsy hardboard, that's why I need a new backboard. I have to mount on the sides.

Not very pretty ( or even industrial chunky ) from the front which is all I've got to access. I think the tower bolts and strengthened "sockets" is how it'll be. I just need to source some inserts to strength the hole / socket.

Note: Don't google 'hole insert' unless you want to read some google answers questions from the young and curious.

 

lol, you just made me

These mounted on the sides of the back board then strengthen the screw holes on the sides of the pax?

 

Why dont you just run some square dowel all the way down the back on each side, screw these at regular intervals into the sides, then just put a sheet over the front of these and screw at regular intervals through the front into the dowel behind, then you should get a strong back with a cavity behind it for cables etc. fairly easily - you can also in this sheet then cut holes wherever you need them for cabling, and the cables can exist in the cavity behind the wall at the back, between the strong sheet and the actual back of the cabinet.

 

That's certainly remains an option, I'd just prefer a solution that allows the board to pop out easily. I guess I could use bolts / wing nuts or something like that.

Hmmmm

 

Desk as it stands (See what I did there?).

Displays need mounting. Speakers needs connecting. Laptop needs moving. Lights need installing. Printer needs connecting. PC needs connecting. Phone needs connecting. Drives need connecting.

But it's usable

 

Nice compact closet build.

If your top shelf had a strip of wood say 1"x2" mounted sides and back then you could hang the back panel from hooks.

 

Nice idea, but the PAX shelves are only supported by six little plastic inserts. They support a huge weight but I wouldn't want to hung my displays off a shelf that already has a heavy PC on it.

Plus the COG of the backboard + VESA mounts + displays would need to be taken into account.

I bought some tower bolts but their quality is rubbish, I'll go with side batons + screws.

 

Charging Drawer - An update

Finally got around to organising the desk's charging drawer today.

Five old wire coat hangers, some gaffer tape and some purple braided corded and I've made a four slot iPad charging station. Tucked up behind it is an absolutely brilliant Anker five port USB charger that auto switches the power to each port and will happily fast charge multiple high drain devices.

Some self adhesive cable drops and the odd velcro cable tie keeps the wires in check.

Shame about the messy mains sockets, but they're a necessary evil really. The top 8-way is backed up on the UPS (2 computers, five HDDs, one of the displays), while the switched sockets on the right are for charging only.

USB 3.0 hub is messy too, but it's accessible which is the main thing.

A tidier solution would be great. Ideas on a postcard...

 

For completion sake here's a pic of the desk with the displays mounted on a new backboard:



And here's what it looks like with the 27" swung out of the way where you can see the cheap and nasty optical switch I'm using to route audio from either the Mac or the PC. This can be reached without moving the display.



The backboard is mounted on wooden batons which are bolted to the left and right of the wardrobe frame. The board itself is part of the old ikea desk. It's only laminated chipboard but really heavy and dense so perfect for supporting the displays without bending. The birch laminate matches the shelves I'm using perfectly.

PS Don't those displays looks really poorly matched. That's the iPhone camera for you. It must be handling the colour temperature of the backlights differently (Seeing as only one is LED)