As the abundance of standing desks to emerge this year would indicate, sitting on your butt all day is not all that good for your health. The world's largest furniture retailer is now joining the fray, with Ikea launching a convertible desk that adjusts mechanically from sitting to standing position and features the company's characteristically sleek design.
When they first arrived on the scene, motorized standing desks were commonly accompanied by a four-figure price tag. But a growing body of research linking excessive sitting to health problems, such as obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease, has prompted an onslaught of crowdfunding campaigns, each with slightly different takes on the standing desk and helping to drive their cost toward something more palatable.
Ikea's Bekant desk has a maximum load of 150 lb (68 kg) and boasts a 63 x 31.5 in (160 x 80) workspace sitting atop a powder-coated steel frame. In height, it adjusts from 22 to 48 in (56 to 122 cm) thanks to what Ikea describes as an "electric underframe" and control buttons on its side.
The Bekant is available online from US$469 to $489 depending on the choice of desktop material, which puts it in the company of other sub-$500 standing desk options we've seen recently. The StandDesk is currently available for pre-order at $399, while those not quite ready to entirely reinvent their workspace may opt for a unit that converts their existing desk, such as the ZestDesk, which can be pre-orded for AUD$337 (about US$295).
You can see a demonstration of Ikea's Bekant desk in the video below.
Source: Ikea
