Custom Standing Desk Drawer

No great options existed, so I built the perfect one (for me)

I recently decided to upgrade my "traditional" desk to a standing variant with the Apex Pro by Desk Haus. When it came time to look at options for attaching a drawer, it all went a bit sideways.

Due to standing desks like the Apex Pro/Max, and models from UPLIFT having a large supporting crossmember that spans the entire underside length of the desk, drawer options are significantly hampered from the constrained mounting depth.

Most folks seem to shoehorn smaller undermount drawer options from various online retailers, or remove one of the supporting crossmembers to make room for a slightly larger drawer, but none of these resonated with me as a good fit — functionally, or aesthetically.

Now that I had this beautifully large desk, I wanted an undermount drawer to match.

The MVP

Once I had received the desk, and could inspect everything more closely, the next logical step was to create some sort of MVP to ensure what I was envisioning would be a viable solution.

For the design concept, I borrowed quite liberally from my previous desk, a Husky workbench table. It also had a nice large drawer, even though it suffered from the same supporting crossmember issue.

I started by making a very crude cardboard mock, and once comfortable attempted to replicate the cardboard mock in CAD software.

The Build

Now that I had a working cardboard MVP, and a somewhat decent visual layout in CAD, I needed to find someone locally that could bring this vision to life. Luckily, I was able to find a local machinist, Andrey, who owns Custom Machined Concepts.

Andrey and I went back and forth over email, getting the design details just right. A short time later, I met him at the shop to pickup the parts for test fitting before powder coat.

It's amazing to find, and work with small business owners. Andrey not only took time to show me the machines he used, he offered up quite a few suggestions, and improvements so if I decided to produce these at a larger scale for other folks, the result would be even better.

The Final Product

Once back from powder coating, I picked up some soft-close slides from the local big box store, a few specialty washers, bolts, screws and grommets from McMaster-Carr, and had the newly assembled drawer up and running in no time.

Final Thoughts

Other than the backlit, dark final photos — I'm super pleased with how everything turned out. That said, I also have a laundry list of improvements that can be made — especially if I decide to pursue producing this for other folks to purchase.

Even though I do enjoy standing most of the day, I still take a break every now and then to enjoy sitting in my custom Herman Miller Aeron I had built prior — and yes, I can sit comfortably with clearance from the drawer. 🤘