Two New Flexible Standing Desk Options
To sit or to stand? Oristand’s flatpacked cardboard design versus NextDesk’s motorized set-up
If you’ve made a New Year’s Resolution to get up and be active more often, switching to a standing desk makes for a reasonable action item. As it turns out, standing up all day in the office doesn’t work for everyone, so it’s wise to find a flexible option that allows for smooth, swift changes in position—at a moment’s notice. Here are two new, quite different offerings to help achieve your 2016 goal of sitting less.
Oristand
From Vancouver comes the Oristand, which arrives flat. In one move, the cardboard design opens up into a step stool-like form—no assembly, glue or joining—and folds flat again when you’re done. Ryan Holmes, founder of social media managing platform Hootsuite, was seeking an alternative to conventional stand-up desks, which can eat up a lot of space (and budget). Enlisting designers Steve Suchy and Nathan Martell, Holmes has come up with a solution that’s not only flexible and cheap, it’s 100% recyclable.
For the price of $25, the Oristand is available in three different colors and can hold about 60 pounds, so it’s best for laptops. There are plans in the works to develop newer iterations that can sustain large monitors (though the idea of moving an iMac on and off a cardboard tower is a little unsettling). Just be sure, after folding it back down, to store the Oristand far, far away from the recycling area (and cups of hot coffee).
NextDesk CrossOver
If you’re open to making a bigger, more longterm furniture investment, NextDesk offers a wide variety of office desks (manufactured in Georgetown, Texas) that use well-hidden microprocessor-controlled motors to quietly and quickly adjust height. Some of which even have a treadmill add-on. They traditionally range from roughly $900 to a few thousand dollars but NextDesk’s CrossOver, available for pre-order today, is their most inexpensive and flexible powered option to date. Unlike their current roster of fixed desks, the compact CrossOver can be placed atop your existing desk. Adjusting it simply involves pushing a button, and it reaches a max height of 20.75 inches.
Powered by a 24-volt DC motor, the CrossOver weighs about 40 pounds and can hold up to 100 pounds. Note that the renderings don’t show a power cord, but one will come out of the back of the center base. The aluminum frame version, with bamboo desktop, has a base price of $447; for $50 more, the CrossOver Pro has a slightly larger workspace plus a separate keyboard platform. Stay tuned for a steel frame version that will retail for $399 next month.
OriStand images by Cool Hunting, all others courtesy of NextDesk
