A touch of glass: SKARSTA standing desk upgrade

My simple hack to improve and smarten a sitting/ standing desk with a glass top.

A couple of years ago, I spotted IKEA had an affordable sit/stand desk in the SKARSTA range, and I duly bought the smaller one for my home computer area.

SKARSTA Desk | IKEA.com

SKARSTA tables have a composite wood tabletop wrapped like many such items in a paper/plastic laminate. Most of the time this is fine for furniture items, but for a desk I quite quickly found the surface easily became marked, and the laminate join of top to edge was vulnerable to moisture. i.e. from hands/wrists (I live in a hot country).

Over time the laminate failed and the composite wood (MDF?) began to swell and crumble, spoiling it looks and just plain bad.

I toyed with just buying another table top to fit to the legs but all table tops seemed to be made in a similar manner or real wood was very expensive. I put up with it for a year or so.

Then I saw IKEA had a safety glass table top GLASHOLM, how would that be possible to switch to the SKARSTA leg mechanism?

Tape measure in hand I went to the IKEA store and the penny dropped, don’t replace the top, upgrade it.

Items:

1 SKARSTA Desk white 120×70 cm
1 GLASHOLM top 148×73 cm
Silicone sealant

Upgrading to a glass standing desk:

I cleaned the SKARSTA table top (not required if new). Then, sanded the bulging edge of the damaged laminate to restore the level of the table.

The GLASHOLM glass is larger than the SKARSTA standing desk. And you have to bear in mind the raising and lowering mechanism underneath the SKARSTA front edge.

In the end I calculated that a front edge overhang of 3cm still allowed easy operation of the SKARSTA winder. The left/right overhang I just equaled out at 14cm each side.

How to attach safely?

Silicone sealant to the rescue. I bought a tube and dispenser of clear silicone seal. Then, ran a bead around the SKARSTA table top about 4cm in from the edge and left a couple of gaps so it wasn’t a continuous run. This allows the air to escape from between the two tops.

I used non permanent marker to temporally mark the GLASHOLM where I wanted the SKARSTA edges to lie. Then, two of us (GLASHOLM is heavy) positioned over the table. Lowered it down and checked the alignment and adjusted by sliding before gently pressing down to the exclude the air.

I left it overnight to cure, and it’s solid as a rock.

Easy to clean surface, GLASHOLM is sweat resistant, SKARSTA raises and lowers as before.

~ by Mark

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