Standing desks

Will a Standing Desk With Drawers Leave Room for Your Legs?

Published · By Ergocrew · Specs and guidance as of that date, from the pages under Sources

Summary

It can, but the drawer takes space from the same gap your thighs use when you sit. OSHA wants 20 to 28 inches of height under a desktop, and a drawer hanging below the top eats into that from above. On a sit-stand desk, the tight spot is the lowest seated position, so the drawer's depth below the top is the measurement to find before anything else.

Why the drawer matters most when you sit

OSHA's desk guidance says "Clearance for the legs, under the desktop, should generally be between 20-28 inches (50-72 cm) high." It also treats drawers as the first thing to remove when space runs short: "Remove center drawers of conventional desks to create additional thigh clearance if necessary." Its keyboard page describes the problem itself, a chair that cannot go high enough "because of contact between the drawer and the top of the thighs."

Standing, the drawer is well above your legs and out of the way. Sitting, it sits right over your thighs.

A quick way to check a listing

You need two numbers, your seated desk height and how far the drawer hangs below the top.

Say your seated elbows put the desktop at 27 inches, and the drawer box hangs 5 inches below the surface. That leaves 22 inches from the floor to the bottom of the drawer. Measure your seated thigh height, from the floor to the top of your thigh with the chair set, and compare. If the drawer clears your thighs with a little space for movement, the desk works at that height. If it does not, raising the desk makes room, but then the keyboard sits above your elbows.

OSHA's evaluation checklist frames the goal as clearance "between the top of the thighs and the computer table/keyboard platform (thighs are not trapped)." The drawer counts as part of that platform.

Things that ride along

A drawer fixed to the top goes up and down with it. Whatever you keep inside becomes part of the load the frame lifts, so a drawer full of paper or cables counts against the maker's capacity figure. Cords also need to stay clear of the drawer as it moves, since a cable caught between the drawer box and the frame can snag on the way up.

Storage beside the desk

OSHA's guidance on under-desk space is to "Limit the number of items that are stored under the work surface." A rolling pedestal or a cabinet beside the desk keeps storage off the moving top and out of the leg space.

Related guides

Sources

  1. OSHA Computer Workstations eTool, Desks
  2. OSHA Computer Workstations eTool, Keyboards
  3. OSHA Computer Workstations eTool, Evaluation Checklist

We have not tested these products. Specs and guidance are as published on these pages on the date above and can change; the manufacturer's page for your model has the current details.

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