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Comment by DontBeADick | Hacker News Reader

Cool, but why not buy a tall stool or drafting chair that matches the height of the desk instead of figuring out all these convoluted ways to lower the entire desk? The whole idea is to sit less, so it shouldn't matter very much how comfortable your chair is.

I use an $85 stool with my standing desk (the bare-bones kind you'd see in high school science classrooms), and I prefer it over any of the $300+ office chairs my employers have provided in the past.

(edited for clarification)

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I've always thought that standing desk need to be adjustable not because you might want to lower it all the way down to use as a normal desk, but rather because without fine-grained adjustment, it's impossible to use the desk standing: a couple centimeters too high or low will quickly make it a nightmare experience.

A desk that is adjustable is cheap... a desk which changes height VERY easily is expensive.

Do you mean that people should have a fixed standing-height desk, and also a tall chair they can either sit in or not? That is actually my current solution (desk cobbled from adjustable shelving plus a 3' length of used countertop, tall chair from Walmart), but it took me a few read-throughs to get that as a possible interpretation of your comment.

Yes -- a tall desk and a tall chair to match it. Then you should have no need to adjust either unless you somehow become wheelchair-bound by an injury.

It also gives you the option of leaning halfway on/halfway off the stool with one foot on the floor (to avoid the awkward pelvic tilt that a lot of office chairs cause).

I'm doing this but I've found that having my feet suspended or only on the foot rest can lead to joint pain. I've set up a bench for my feet under the desk as a temporary solution but may spring for one of these ikea things and a nice chair in the future.

Also as a fairly active person (I run, ski, hike, bike, do yoga and climb pretty regularly) with aging joints I've found I need true rest/recovery time enough that standing the majority of the time doesn't work well for me.

I would like to agree. My Yankee sensibility tells me I don't have to spend hundreds of dollars when the goal is simply to stand up at my desk. For the few times I need to sit I can use a stool as you suggest.

That said, I've been sitting at desks for decades. I'm a little reluctant to buy or build a high desk with the assumption that I will be able to stand at it all day and be productive. The adjustable desks give you a "way out" even if it's just for a few hours a day while you get used to it. I think that's why they are popular. Few people want to commit to a change like that and all the ways to "Try" a standing desk are nearly as much effort as the ~$500 is worth. especially if you are counting it as business or office expenses as I would.

In my case it would be $85 for the stool, plus a few hours labor and materials to build a little stand on top of my existing desk which includes a trip to the lumber yard. Then if I like it I go out and buy a permanent standing desk for about $150 and I'm rapidly approaching the same cost as if I had just gone and bought the adjustable desk in the first place.

It's surprisingly cheap/easy to put the whole thing together with things from Amazon and IKEA. For example:

    4x Olov 36" legs [1] = $60
    1x Linnmon 47" x 24" table top [2] = $20
    whatever small shelf will fit your monitor(s) = $20
    1x Adjustable Stool [3] = $85
    Total = $185

Just be aware of the heights. If you're over 6' tall, you'll probably need to put the desk on a $10 set of bed risers (or spring for the $30 Gerton legs that adjust over 40") and you may need the 6430HB stool instead of the 6424HB. The price on those should be within $5 though.

[1] http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30264301/

[2] http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00251343/

[3] http://www.amazon.com/National-Public-Seating-6424HB-Upholst...

The Gerton Leg, adjustable is not a good solution for a free-standing desk. The recommended installation is two of them at max height with the tabletop affixed to something solid, like a wall.

I learned this after I built the free-standing desk I am currently using. There is noticeable wobble while typing.

This has been my setup for about a year now. Building a standing-only desk is relatively simple. I built this last weekend in 4 hours for about $50 http://bit.ly/1A6NSlk I use it with this height-adjustable stool http://www.amazon.com/Boss-B16245-BK-Caressoft-Medical-Draft... The stool is comfortable enough, meaning it actually gets a little uncomfortable after a few hours, making me want to stand for a while.

In my personal situation, this isn't feasible, because I have a very hard time sitting in chairs where I cannot plant my feet firmly on the ground in front of me. I can only dangle my feet, or plant them underneath me, for a few minutes. After that, my back starts to hurt terribly bad, and stays that way for a while.

I wish the solution was that simple for me. If I were the type of person it would work for, I would definitely go the stool/highchair route over an expensive adjustable desk.

My mind just went "Wat?! Just buy a buy a bar chair and don't spend 400-600$ for high-tech table?". Some part of me now hates you :) . Thanks for the idea.

Since most desks don't adjust easily, that is by far the most common seating choice for stand-up desks.

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