Ikea Mittzon Standing Desk Spiel

by Rian

I don’t know if this would come as a surprise, but Mittzon is not my first standing desk setup. I have actually owned a portable standing desk of sort that sits on top of an existing traditional desk. It also pulled double duty as a flat surface laptop stand, so that I may use it on a couch or a bed. But the one I had didn’t have the fine height control I wanted from a standing desk experience.

Looking back, I began writing standing up from college. There were vacant lecture rooms and seminar rooms students were allowed in, so that they may use the black board for different activities. It was a great perk of being a college student. With black boards around the room and a big drafting table, it worked as a primitive “standing desk” of sort; I could change my posture whenever I want, and I had access to all the materials so the train of thoughts were still in tact.

That’s why I looked at the standing desk again, and more over Ikea. I was having a posture problem with the desk I had, and I wasn’t planning on going back to using either black boards or white boards. All the materials I worked with were mostly paperless nowadays, and jotting them again on a board would be an unnecessary step. Being able to control the height of all the screens at once is exactly what I wanted. I also didn’t want to pay the premium for the ergonomics furnitures.

I wouldn’t go into details as to the specs of the desk; there are already in-depth reviews out there with real lab results. Instead, I would rather focus on Mittzon as an Ikea product — this won’t be the easiest Ikea furniture to assemble, in both figurative and physical sense. The assembly, quite frankly, is not accessible. Connecting two extendable columns, possibly heaviest Ikea desk legs out there, to the central beam running width-wise could not have been more poorly designed; it has to be lifted up few millimeters into air for screws to line up properly. Only until the beam is assembled and flipped over up-right, gravity will hold the desk’s constitution.

One other thing Ikea doesn’t mention in its product page, especially for a first timer’s standing desk owner — plan ahead for cabling. What Ikea offers, a simple power strip for a one laptop, isn’t enough for my setup: monitors, speakers, possibly secondary USB-C charger for other gadgets, and etc. From your current setup, I recommend giving it additional 2 meters (roughly 6 feet) of cables. I would advise against using extension cables aside from power; it’s an open invitation to nightmares. Some cables, like Thunderbolt, are simply not affordable post 2 meters, so it does take some strategic approach. In my case, I use a laptop and a desktop. I’ve connected a laptop sitting on the desk via Thunderbolt, then connected a desktop via DP and USB-C with added length.

All in all, my take on moving to a new desk was that it was worth it. I didn’t think the trend of desks has changed. Heck, it was incredible working with the embedded cable management system and two headphone hangers in Mittzon. Ikea doesn’t even bother make a fuss about it. They just exist. Electric controls are smooth, and memory functions are reliable as ever. If you were looking for a higher desk, like a drafting table, having a non-stationary desk is really the solution in our time.

note: Featured image is from Ikea.