How deep does a desk need to be, and is sit-stand worth it?

Straight answer on sit-stand first: we don't currently stock a height-adjustable desk — every desk in the range is a fixed height, in the 72-75cm band that BS EN 527 (the European desk standard) sets as the seated norm. If a sit-stand desk is specifically what you're after, this guide's standing-height figures are worth having, but they describe a feature we don't yet sell rather than one of our own products.

Depth is where our own range genuinely varies, and it's the number most desk listings undersell: 60cm is enough for a laptop, but a monitor and keyboard together want 70-80cm, with BS EN 527 setting 80cm as the recommended minimum for that setup. Below is what each depth actually suits, and eight of our own desks measured against it.

Rule one. Sixty centimetres is a laptop depth, not a monitor depth

A 60cm-deep desk fits a laptop with room for a notepad in front of it, which is exactly the setup most compact desks are designed and marketed for. Add an external monitor at a healthy 50-75cm eye-to-screen distance and 60cm of depth pushes the monitor right against the edge — usable, but not the setup BS EN 527's 80cm recommendation is based on.

This is the single most useful check before buying: if a monitor is part of the plan, measure the desk's depth against 70-80cm before checking anything else about it.

Rule two. Elbow height sets the desk height, which is why 72-75cm is standard

A desk's height is supposed to put your forearms roughly horizontal with your elbows near 90 degrees when typing — seated elbow height, not an arbitrary furniture-industry number. For most adults that lands at 72-75cm, which is why BS EN 527 fixes the standard there and why a desk far outside that range needs an adjustable chair to compensate.

Someone notably taller or shorter than average is the case a fixed-height desk serves worst — the chair can raise or lower the seated position, but only within limits before the desk itself becomes the wrong height for a comfortable elbow angle.

Rule three. What a sit-stand desk actually changes

A height-adjustable desk covers a much wider range than any fixed desk — commonly around 65-125cm, enough to suit a genuinely wide range of heights and to alternate between sitting and standing through the day. Neither of those is something a fixed-height desk can do at all, which is the real case for one, more than any specific health claim about standing itself.

We don't have one in the range to point you to. If sit-stand is the priority, that's worth knowing before shopping our desk category rather than after.

Eight of our desks, by depth

Sorted so it's obvious at a glance which suit a laptop and which stretch to a full monitor setup.

None of our current range reaches BS EN 527's 80cm recommendation — worth knowing plainly rather than discovering after a monitor arrives and doesn't comfortably fit. All are workable for a laptop, which is the setup most of them are actually designed around.

The short version

60cm depth suits a laptop; a monitor and keyboard setup wants 70-80cm. Desk height is standardised at 72-75cm because it matches seated elbow height for most adults. We don't stock a sit-stand desk — if that's the requirement, know that before shopping this category, not after.