What is the right desk height?

Most desks sit at 72 to 76 cm, which suits people around 170 to 180 cm tall. The test is your elbows: sitting with feet flat, your forearms should reach the keyboard roughly level, not angled up. Taller than that range and a fixed desk will push your shoulders up all day.

How deep should a desk be?

75 to 80 cm of depth is comfortable for a monitor, because a 27 inch screen wants to sit 60 to 80 cm from your eyes. Shallow desks of 50 to 60 cm force the monitor too close or hang it off the back edge. Depth is the dimension people regret most after buying.

How do you set up cables under a desk?

Mount the power strip under the desk first, then everything else follows from where it sits. A 38 to 60 cm tray holds the strip and the bricks, hook and loop ties bundle the runs, clips catch the strays, and one labelled drop goes to the wall. Four parts, in that order.

How do you make a small desk feel bigger?

Get things off the surface rather than buying a bigger desk. A monitor arm frees the footprint a riser occupies, a shelf at 38 to 50 cm above the desktop takes the small objects, and a hook under the edge holds headphones. A 900 by 400 mm mat then defines what is left.

Do machined pens take standard refills?

Many do, and it is the first thing to check. Refills following ISO 12757-2 dimensions are sold everywhere, so a pen built around one stays usable for decades. A pen taking a proprietary cartridge is fine until the maker stops selling it, at which point the pen is decoration.

Subject

Desk Culture

Six measurements decide whether a desk works, and depth is the one people regret.

4 min read

Desk Cable Management: Trays, Clips, Sleeves and the Order to Do It

Cable mess under a desk is four cheap fixes done in the right order. The power strip goes first, and most of the rest follows from it.

5 min read

Desk Dimensions Guide: Height, Depth, Width and Monitor Distance

Six measurements decide whether a desk works. Take them before you buy, because depth and clearance are the ones people regret.

3 min read

Desk Plants for a Room Without Much Light

Most desk plants die of kindness in a dark room. These four take low light and irregular watering without sulking.

5 min read

Machined Pens: Aluminium vs Titanium vs Brass, and the Refill Inside

The metal decides how it sits in your hand. The refill decides how long you keep it.

4 min read

Small Desk Layout: Placement, Shelves, Pegboards and Desk Mats

On a small desk, the fix is getting things off the surface, not buying a bigger desk. Here's where everything goes and how high.

The measurements come before the objects

Desk culture looks like an aesthetic and it is mostly arithmetic. Height, depth, width, monitor distance, monitor height, and the clearance behind the chair. Get those six right and a plain desk feels good, and the desk height calculator does the first three from your own height. Get depth wrong and no amount of nice objects fixes it, because the monitor ends up too close to your face and there is nowhere to rest your wrists.

Depth is the one people get wrong most. Shop listings lead with width, because width is what looks generous in a photo. But a 27 inch screen wants to sit 60 to 80 cm from your eyes, which means 75 to 80 cm of desk. Plenty of desks sold for computers are 50 cm deep. The six measurements worth taking first includes the 90 cm of floor behind the desk that nobody measures until the chair hits a wall.

Three numbers you will keep meeting

72 to 76 cm of height. 75 to 80 cm of depth. 900 by 400 mm for a desk mat, which is the size that holds a keyboard and a mouse without the mouse running off the edge. That mat figure turns up again in gift lists and keyboard pages, because it is the one desk accessory size that is close to universal.

Small desks need height, not width

If the desk is small, the fix is vertical. A monitor arm gives back the footprint a riser takes up. A shelf at 38 to 50 cm above the desktop holds the things that were cluttering the surface. A pegboard with its bottom edge 15 to 25 cm up puts tools within reach. Working a small desk upward also covers putting the desk side-on to a window, which is free and fixes glare.

Then the cables, which is the job everyone postpones. It is four parts and an order — start with the power strip and the rest arranges itself around it.

What earns a place on the surface

Two things, usually. A pen you like picking up, where the metal decides how it sits in your hand and the refill decides how long you keep it. And something alive, if the room can support it — four plants that tolerate a dark office covers the honest version, which is that most desk plants die of overwatering rather than neglect.

Everything else is negotiable. Lighting is not — about 500 lux on the surface does more for a desk than any object on it, and the board you type on takes up whatever room is left, which is why keyboard size is a layout decision as much as a typing one.

Common questions

What is the right desk height?: Most desks sit at 72 to 76 cm, which suits people around 170 to 180 cm tall. The test is your elbows: sitting with feet flat, your forearms should reach the keyboard roughly level, not angled up. Taller than that range and a fixed desk will push your shoulders up all day.
How deep should a desk be?: 75 to 80 cm of depth is comfortable for a monitor, because a 27 inch screen wants to sit 60 to 80 cm from your eyes. Shallow desks of 50 to 60 cm force the monitor too close or hang it off the back edge. Depth is the dimension people regret most after buying.
How do you set up cables under a desk?: Mount the power strip under the desk first, then everything else follows from where it sits. A 38 to 60 cm tray holds the strip and the bricks, hook and loop ties bundle the runs, clips catch the strays, and one labelled drop goes to the wall. Four parts, in that order.
How do you make a small desk feel bigger?: Get things off the surface rather than buying a bigger desk. A monitor arm frees the footprint a riser occupies, a shelf at 38 to 50 cm above the desktop takes the small objects, and a hook under the edge holds headphones. A 900 by 400 mm mat then defines what is left.
Do machined pens take standard refills?: Many do, and it is the first thing to check. Refills following ISO 12757-2 dimensions are sold everywhere, so a pen built around one stays usable for decades. A pen taking a proprietary cartridge is fine until the maker stops selling it, at which point the pen is decoration.