Wall-mounted height-adjustable desk?

[Stonelesscutter]

Hi! As per usual, I find myself wanting something which seems to not be a standard thing. I've had my eye on height-adjustable desks for a while. But, I want one without legs. The room it would be placed in is about 2.5 meters wide anyway. I figure I don't need legs and just make a large desk surface and mount it to the walls on the sides. That's easy enough, but I would like to be able to adjust the height of it. Not even necessarily by a huge margin, like switching from regular desk height to standing desk height, but at the least I want to be able to finetune the height to what is comfortable for me, which may take some trial and error to figure out. I've searched online, but I guess I haven't figured out the appropriate search terms, because I'm not getting anything similar to what I have in mind, just basically desks with legs. I would appreciate any suggestions.

[Alex Atkin UK]

1 hour ago, Stonelesscutter said:

Hi! As per usual, I find myself wanting something which seems to not be a standard thing. I've had my eye on height-adjustable desks for a while. But, I want one without legs. The room it would be placed in is about 2.5 meters wide anyway. I figure I don't need legs and just make a large desk surface and mount it to the walls on the sides. That's easy enough, but I would like to be able to adjust the height of it. Not even necessarily by a huge margin, like switching from regular desk height to standing desk height, but at the least I want to be able to finetune the height to what is comfortable for me, which may take some trial and error to figure out. I've searched online, but I guess I haven't figured out the appropriate search terms, because I'm not getting anything similar to what I have in mind, just basically desks with legs. I would appreciate any suggestions.

I'd imagine the engineering would be much more complex on this for a niche product, as all the weight would be going on the wall brackets rather than evenly distributed across legs.  So its understandable that nobody is making them, it would likely have to be a custom design and insanely expensive.

[thrasher_565]

i guess if you added plywood to the wall and cut the leg off and welded on a wall mount plate i guess the could work...

 

[ToboRobot]

Two separate and different height desks can be mounted to a wall with simple triangular brackets for very cheap.

 

A monitor arm that can move between the two heights can be setup.

You can easily move a mouse and keyboard between the two "desks" quickly.

[Stonelesscutter]

7 hours ago, ToboRobot said:

Two separate and different height desks can be mounted to a wall with simple triangular brackets for very cheap.

 

A monitor arm that can move between the two heights can be setup.

You can easily move a mouse and keyboard between the two "desks" quickly.

But, one would be in the way of the other. ?

[ToboRobot]

Just now, Stonelesscutter said:

But, one would be in the way of the other. ?

no, one desk on the wall with another to the left or right.  so you can use both desks.
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[Stonelesscutter]

1 minute ago, ToboRobot said:

no, one desk on the wall with another to the left or right.  so you can use both desks.
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I see. I suppose that could be a solution for some, but it's not what I'm looking for. Thanks in any case for the suggestion.

[LogicalDrm]

You won't find anything off the shelf. But I don't see issue on why not. It's just about how forklifts or stair elevators work.

 

Sp like this https://www.familyhandyman.com/project/garage-shelf/ or similar. Things to consider though are how much desks pace you need, and how much weight it will be.

[Lurking]

On 10/8/2023 at 7:09 AM, LogicalDrm said:

You won't find anything off the shelf. But I don't see issue on why not. It's just about how forklifts or stair elevators work.

 

Sp like this https://www.familyhandyman.com/project/garage-shelf/ or similar. Things to consider though are how much desks pace you need, and how much weight it will be.

That or similar might be the best DIY solution. I just want to add that a desk 30" deep (and user leaning on it) will create much more leverage than the self shown. You'll need some well engineered anchoring to the wall and a good wall to begin with. You also want to review specs or contact manufacturer of that lift system what limits are.

 

Furniture system manufacturers design assuming some hundred pounds pushing down. This just being in your home may require less. But you want to design for some worst case (your drunk 400 pound cousin coming over and supporting himself etc). Don't want to have the whole setup fall on your feet 

 

It is a great idea. But you now see why all pre-made solutions have legs.

[HenrySalayne]

On 10/7/2023 at 12:11 AM, Stonelesscutter said:

Not even necessarily by a huge margin, like switching from regular desk height to standing desk height, but at the least I want to be able to finetune the height to what is comfortable for me, which may take some trial and error to figure out.

Get some mounting rails, fix them to the wall and mount the tabletop to the rail instead of the wall. Adjusting it would mean using a wrench / screwdriver, but you can experiment with it all you want and the rail will make sure you distribute the load into the wall.

 

If it needs to be electrically driven, it will be much more complicated and expensive, but nothing too special. You need one or two lifting columns and two linear bearings with rails to counter the torque. You can get lifting columns with the very same control system like motorized desks off the shelf. Linear bearings and rails are standardized industrial parts.

 

 

 

[Stonelesscutter]

On 10/8/2023 at 1:09 PM, LogicalDrm said:

You won't find anything off the shelf. But I don't see issue on why not. It's just about how forklifts or stair elevators work.

 

Sp like this https://www.familyhandyman.com/project/garage-shelf/ or similar. Things to consider though are how much desks pace you need, and how much weight it will be.

Thanks, that looks neat. In my case though, it won't be mounting to the wall at the back of the desk, but at the walls to the left and right sides of the desk.

[djksm]

well, it could be done except there would be 2 metal rods and it would be very expensive and (somewhat) ugly

[Lurking]

3 hours ago, Stonelesscutter said:

Thanks, that looks neat. In my case though, it won't be mounting to the wall at the back of the desk, but at the walls to the left and right sides of the desk.

Then you need 2 lifting mechanisms. They need to be synced and also detect the other mechanism's failure. Probably some other issues a single-mechanism wouldn't have. 

 

You also need a horizontal steel beam or similar brace to prevent bending of the desk surface. 

[thrasher_565]

could suspend it from the roof but would need a rail to make it not move around.

[Thaldor]

8 hours ago, Stonelesscutter said:

Thanks, that looks neat. In my case though, it won't be mounting to the wall at the back of the desk, but at the walls to the left and right sides of the desk.

With 2.5m cap you are needing the center support unless you're going to use some really thick and sturdy table material (like +5cm solid) or steel reinforcements. 2m starts to be the point where you really need to start thinking about the weight and how much the table can hold.

[LogicalDrm]

11 hours ago, Stonelesscutter said:

Thanks, that looks neat. In my case though, it won't be mounting to the wall at the back of the desk, but at the walls to the left and right sides of the desk.

Concept is still same. I would probably go with passive supporting rails at the other side while motor/lift mechanism is just on other side. Like have support/stop as you will need cross-beam since its long distance from mounting point to the other side.

 

(Not mechanical engineer, just basics of physics)

[Stonelesscutter]

I was kinda hoping someone would come along and say "ah, you need a set of these", but it looks like my best bet would be to either mount standing desk legs to the walls or just go for the standing desk option, which to be fair would seem to be the more sensible option of the two. Thanks to all for your input.

[BrandonLatzig]

8 hours ago, Stonelesscutter said:

I was kinda hoping someone would come along and say "ah, you need a set of these", but it looks like my best bet would be to either mount standing desk legs to the walls or just go for the standing desk option, which to be fair would seem to be the more sensible option of the two. Thanks to all for your input.

To be fair, most domestic walls aren't build with the idea of holding upwards of 50+lbs on a few points of contact

[LogicalDrm]

13 hours ago, Stonelesscutter said:

I was kinda hoping someone would come along and say "ah, you need a set of these", but it looks like my best bet would be to either mount standing desk legs to the walls or just go for the standing desk option, which to be fair would seem to be the more sensible option of the two. Thanks to all for your input.

There's also middle option to just buy legs and motor separate from tabletop. This would allow more flexibility if set sizes aren't suitable for your space. For example Ikea sells their legs separate.

[AbydosOne]

On 10/6/2023 at 5:11 PM, Stonelesscutter said:

I've searched online, but I guess I haven't figured out the appropriate search terms, because I'm not getting anything similar to what I have in mind, just basically desks with legs. I would appreciate any suggestions.

This just popped up in my email inbox...

 

[Stonelesscutter]

2 hours ago, AbydosOne said:

This just popped up in my email inbox...

 

Wow, that's some interesting timing!

 

Looking at this thing though, it doesn't offer any benefits to having a standing desk for my usecase. And the price, ouch!