# IKEA desk & chair assembly

Desks, height-adjustable frames, office chairs and cable management. BEKANT, MITTZON and IDÅSEN, with MARKUS, JÄRVFJÄLLET or MILLBERGET.

A desk and a chair are only finished once they are adjusted to your body, not once the last screw is tight. We build the frame level, then set the desktop height to your forearm, the seat to your lower leg and the screen to your eye height, and tidy the cables away. A home workstation is ready in about half an hour; a sit-stand desk with monitor arm and cable tray takes longer.

**Price: On request**

## Scope of work
- **Desks** — BEKANT, MITTZON and IDÅSEN sit-stand desks, LINNMON with a frame, ALEX drawer units — frame level, top flush.
- **Sit-stand mechanism** — Height positions calibrated, presets set, the desk tested over its full range. With anti-collision we also test the obstacle stop.
- **Chairs** — MARKUS, JÄRVFJÄLLET and MILLBERGET fully built up: tilt tension, recline and armrests set to your body.
- **Cable management** — Cable tray fitted under the top, power strip suspended, cables bundled with hook-and-loop ties — no swing down to the socket.
- **Monitor arm** — VESA arm clamped to the top or fed through, height set to eye level, cables routed through the arm.
- **Done in 30 minutes** — An average home desk plus chair takes us half an hour. Ready to work from the first minute after we're out the door.

## Adjusting to the body that will sit behind it

### Height decides your wrists, not your back
Most people set the desk at the height the box suggests and the chair at the height it arrived at. You then sit too high in relation to the top, your shoulders lift and your wrists bend upwards — and you feel that after a week in your forearms, not in your back. We work the other way round: first the chair to your lower leg, so your feet rest flat and your knees sit slightly below your hips, and only then the top to your forearm. If the top is still too high after that, the answer is a footrest, not a higher chair.

### The depth of the top decides the viewing distance
A screen belongs at roughly arm's length, and that does not work on a sixty-centimetre top once a twenty-seven inch monitor is on it: you push the screen back against the wall and are still too close. A monitor arm buys that space back, because the stand disappears and the screen can go further back and higher. We clamp that arm to the rear edge, or bolt it through the top where the edge is too thick. For height, the same rule applies as with a television, see [BESTÅ television unit assembly](/en/besta-tv-meubel-montage).

### The floor under the chair takes part
An office chair ships with one type of castor, and that rarely suits every floor. Hard castors belong on carpet and roll lightly there; on laminate, parquet or a poured floor they leave a dull track within months. Soft castors with a rubber tread do the opposite: quiet on a hard floor, ploughing on carpet. We swap them where needed — castors are a push fit and come out with one pull — or lay a floor protector. If the workstation is in a bedroom, we often combine the job with [IKEA bed assembly](/en/ikea-bed-montage).

### What stands under a sit-stand desk counts
An electric desk rises with everything attached to it, and whatever does not move becomes the problem. A windowsill, a radiator or a sloping ceiling above the top halts the travel halfway; a drawer unit too close under the top jams on the way down. So we run the full travel before assembly and store the lowest and highest usable positions as presets. We test the anti-collision stop by hand and check that the power lead is long enough at full height — otherwise it pulls itself out of the socket in one movement. For cabinets beside the desk, see [IKEA wardrobe assembly](/en/ikea-kasten-montage).

### Adjusting a chair is more than its height
A good office chair has four adjustments and they depend on one another. Seat depth should leave two or three fingers between the front edge and the back of your knee, otherwise the edge presses on your lower leg. The armrest should carry your forearm without your shoulder lifting. Tilt tension is set to body weight: too light and you fall backwards, too heavy and you cannot leave the upright position. And the lumbar support belongs in the hollow of your lower back, not at your waist. We set those four while you are sitting in it, because otherwise it is guesswork.

### From one workstation to a whole room
One desk and chair is half an hour's work; six identical workstations is a different job. Then we build in series: all the frames first, then all the tops, and only then the cables, because that way the tools are laid out once per operation. We count the sockets and where they are beforehand, since that decides where the power strips go and how long the cable trays need to be. For offices we prefer to plan outside working hours. How a whole room runs is set out under [office and living room assembly](/en/kantoor-en-woonkamer-montage).

## The settings we adjust with you at handover, with the check you can repeat yourself afterwards. The measures are deliberately given as body positions rather than centimetres: the right desk height depends on your forearm, not on a table.

| Setting | What we adjust it to | How to check it yourself |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Seat height | Feet flat on the floor, knees slightly below the hips | You can rest your feet flat without pointing your toes |
| Seat depth | Two or three fingers between the seat edge and the back of the knee | No pressure on your lower leg when you sit upright |
| Desk height, seated | Forearm horizontal, upper arm loose at your side | Your shoulders drop when you place your hands on the top |
| Desk height, standing | Top just below elbow height, wrists straight | You neither reach up nor press down |
| Armrest | Forearm supported without the shoulder lifting | The rest meets your arm as soon as you let it hang |
| Screen | Top edge at or just below eye level, at arm's length | You look slightly down and need not lean forward |

## Frequently asked questions
### Does the BEKANT sit/stand mechanism work right away?
Yes — after calibration we test the desk across the full height range.

### How do you stop an office chair from sinking later?
The gas lift goes into the base last, driven home with a rubber mallet: hard enough to seat, not so hard that the seal is damaged. We test every height before you sit down on it.

### Is cable management part of the job?
Yes, always. Cable tray under the top, power strip hung in place, cables bundled with hook-and-loop ties and a pass-through for monitor and laptop.

### Do you adjust the desk to my height?
Yes, and we do it while you are sitting there. We start with the chair — feet flat, knees just below hip height — and then set the top to your forearm. On a sit-stand desk we store those two positions as presets, so one button brings you back to the height that works.

### What if the desk meets the windowsill or the radiator?
Then we run the full travel before the top goes on and agree the highest usable position with you. We store that as a preset so the desk does not run into the sill each time. We also check the cable length at full height.

### Can you do several workstations in one day?
Yes. For a series of workstations we build by operation rather than by desk: all frames first, then all tops, then all cables. Tell us in advance how many sockets there are and where they sit, and we will bring the right length of cable tray and the power strips.