Jefferson stand up desk from monticello.org

A week ago, Karen, always finding ways to improve my life, sent me a link to a New York Times article “Don’t Just Sit There” criticising our sedentary lifestyles. Turns out that our ritual of 2 3/4 mile walks are insufficient. All of the time spent shifting from one gluteus maximus to the other in front of the computer and on the phone has such negative effects that I might as well forgo the walks and have another donut.

Dating back to my days at Augat (in the ’80s) I have wanted a stand up desk. Never got around to it, though I did look for stand up desks in furniture catalogs and knew that  they were very common in earlier times. Jefferson used them including the one in the photo. Otto von Bismarck reportedly began his day at a stand up desk. Hemingway was photographed at one.

Then there are the health claims for standing. The ArtOfManliness.com has a lengthy discussion. I particularly liked their images of jury rigged stand up desks. Right up my alley. Or. another discussion at The Graham Peterson Desk Company.

I examined a few do-it-yourself options. Some cheap and bad. Some expensive and maybe good. One peculiar design came from the LifeHacker.com website. I like the 2x construction.

My problem is that I already have a desk custom built (ipse fecit) to fit in the space allotted to me. I can’t very well start to agitate for a new corner office.

The only one available is out in the barn. It is drafty out there and I would have to share with whatever critters might happen along. And, because of my already proven sloth, we have a conduit underground, been there for a year, but no one has dragged electric power out there.

Maybe I could work with the LED headgear Ed gave us last year for Xmas. Worked fine camping. Wonder what the clients might think on Skype?

So I came up with my own solution. $34 of material (mostly for the extravagant oak veneer plywood) and now Mr. Wonderful is vertical. If I had done this earlier I could have saved on the real extravagance of the plush office chair that inclines and reclines in every imaginable direction.

BTW – since the photo was taken I have filled in the screw holes, sanded, and slathered three coats of urethane on the desk.