From the land of Lingonberry sauce and meatballs comes a standing desk with a difference. The Ikea trotten is a manual desk that requires you to wind it up and down using a crank, rather than simply hitting a button when you want to change your working position from standing to sitting, or vice versa.

You don’t see too many standing tables operated by a crank these days, as most manufacturers have electrified the operation, but when standing desks first became popular you had no choice but to raise and lower the table via a crank arm.

The obvious advantage is that you can still get the benefits of active working, without having to pay a premium for dual motors and electronic keypads to help mobilise your desktop.

The desk is part of the trotten system, Ikea’s affordable and modular range of flexible desks, ergonomic chairs, and storage units, that are all designed with active working in mind, with everything covered by a 10-year guarantee.

We were intrigued as to how intrusive the mechanism would be during the day and whether it would interrupt our workflow too much.

How we tested

After assembling the table, we set it up as our work desk, which meant it was loaded up with a laptop, in-tray, weekly notebooks, headphones and some personalisations.

A lot can be revealed about a standing desk by the humble cup of coffee, and so we used our flat white (and how close it came to being knocked over or spilled) to determine whether there was enough space available on the desk, how smooth it was in transition and how stable it was when raised to the maximum height.

We then went to work with an active working schedule to see how well the desk accommodated it, without interrupting workflow. Here’s how it stands up...

Ikea trotten sit-stand desk

Best: Value for money standing desk

Height range: 70cm - 120cm

Max load: 50kg

Desktop dimensions: 120cm x70cm or 160cm x 80cm

Guarantee: 10 years

Buy now £180, Ikea.com

Assembly

As you would expect from the overlords of flat pack, some assembly is required to set up your trotten. But it really is child’s play and there are 24 pages of idiot-proof instructions that take you through the whole process of constructing the base, installing and concealing the cranking mechanism within it – and then fixing the desktop. In fact, it took about 40-minutes to be standing in front of a working table after opening the box.

Design

The desktop is melamine-covered wood with some neat plastic edging, which gives it that customary, clean Ikea look, while the base is steel.

You can order the table with four different colour combinations; mixing and matching desktop and base with different finishes (beige, white and anthracite), so you shouldn’t have much trouble finding a combination that matches your home decor.

The table

The trotten made our 2022 standing desk round-up because we were mightily impressed with the quality and price of the table, since then we have tracked the reviews on the Ikea website, where the majority of testimonials are positive.

The trotten comes with two desktop dimensions, 120cm x 70cm and 160cm x 80cm, with prices at £180 and £199 respectively. We really liked the depths of these tables as we think it’s vital that you have enough space between a monitor and keyboard to work ergonomically.

There’s plenty of room for all the usual working accessories and the obligatory cup of coffee can be placed well away from any laptops and keyboards to avoid unwanted desktop disasters.

There’s no cable management options with the table, though, so if you work with a lot of peripherals you might want to think about sourcing a third-party system so things don’t get too messy around and underneath the desktop itself.

However, you won’t have to worry about any wires leading from the desk itself as this is an advantage of a manual – it doesn’t have to be tied to a socket so you have more freedom where you position the table in your workspace. The only thing you need to be mindful of if you work in a narrow space is the crank handle, which needs to be pulled out from underneath the desk, so you need to make sure you can accommodate the extra space needed for winding.

The trotten does support much less weight than many other tables, though (50kg) – the Humanscale float can support 75kg, for example - so if you have a set up that involves a lot of hardware, you might need a more supportive desktop.

There have been some doubts online about the trotten’s stability when it is fully raised, but we didn’t have any issues with our working set up and we didn’t waste a drop of coffee on a wobbly desk.

Now, to the big question: how disruptive is the manual raising and lowering to workflow?

We like the way that Ikea has tried to sell the desk on its website, saying that cranking the handle will give your arms a good workout, while you also reap the health rewards of active working. It’s a nice try because the mechanism is efficient and smooth, but not quick. In fact, we would say it probably takes three times as long to raise the table compared to one that’s electrically operated.

Personally, we don’t see this as that much of a drawback. When we decide to work standing up, or a pre-set alarm goes off on an active working app, we’re never in a massive hurry and it presents an opportunity to take a moment away from workflow to refocus.

However, it probably won’t work for anyone who really wants to minimise those kinds of interruptions, or who has decided they want to work standing up every time they take a call, for example.

The verdict: Ikea trotten sit-stand desk

We originally gave the Ikea trotten sit-stand desk a 9/10 rating and, after spending more time working at it, we are totally satisfied that’s the number it still deserves because its cranking system is smooth and we weren’t impatient with its raising speed. We consider this to be a small price to pay for this budget-friendly introduction to active working.

For this price, you’ve also got peace of mind that you’re minimising what can go wrong with the table and you won’t be stuck with a desktop that you can only sit (or stand) at.

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