So the desk I’m standing at right now is a butcher block standing desk I put together during COVID: a slab of Menards butcher block on a FEZIBO single-motor frame, built when a finished standing desk was a thing people were fighting over. The keypad under the front edge says 46.0. It’s been going up and down most days since, with a 49 inch monitor riding on top, and it’s been phenomenal. Which, there’s one thing I’d change, and I’ll get to it.
Going this way is the move when you want a solid top at the size you pick, in the color you pick, and you don’t want somebody else’s particleboard. The parts list is short: a frame, a slab, a stain, and somebody with a saw if your store won’t cut it. Mine wouldn’t. The rest of this is what I’d tell a friend who’s about to do the same thing.
Links and models checked on 13 October 2026.
The desk as it sits today. The top is the butcher block, stained what I think was a dark walnut. The frame is under there doing all the work.
Why a Frame and Not a Whole Desk
So the reason I went with a frame is that this was during COVID, and those things were crazy expensive. People were buying them up. So what I did instead was buy just the legs and make the top myself, and I got to pick my color by staining it the color I wanted, which you don’t get with a desk out of a box.
The frame is a FEZIBO single-motor, frame-only kit, black. The exact Amazon listing I bought it from is gone, so I can’t point you at the same one. FEZIBO still sells single-motor frame-only kits on their own site, the S2 frame is one of them, but I can’t tell you which current model mine matches, so I’m not gonna pretend I can.
The Top: a 96 Inch Menards Butcher Block, Cut to 72
I went to Menards and bought a 96 inch butcher block, 24 inches deep, already sanded. Menards would not cut it for me, so I cut it down to 72 inches myself with a friend’s tools. Then I stained it, a dark walnut I think, there are so many stain colors there’s no freaking way I’m remembering which one, and put a coat of something over it whose name I’ve also lost. Pretty easy. Not much to say there.
Putting It Together
The top sits on the frame and you run a few screws through the brackets up into the wood. That’s it. I also screwed a power strip to the underside, six or eight outlets, I can’t remember which, so everything on the desk plugs in underneath.
The Keypad and My Four Presets
The keypad has an up arrow, a down arrow, and four memory buttons. You drive it to a height, click and hold a number, and it remembers. Mine go like this: one is all the way down to where I like to sit comfortably. Two is sitting a little higher, for a chair that sits up higher. Three is my comfortable standing height. Four is a little higher than that, for when I’m on the walking pad.
The keypad under the front edge, showing 46.0. That’s a standing height, not a sitting one. You can see the edge of the butcher block above it, and the screw.
How the Butcher Block Standing Desk Holds Up
I have not noticed any wobble. I put a 49 inch monitor on it, and for a while I had my big, heavy, giant gaming laptop up there with it, and it had no problems raising the lot. The one thing: sometimes I’d lean on it while I was on the walking pad, and it would let loose and drop down a little. So there’s that to consider if you lean on your desk. Other than that, no issues. It’s been phenomenal and I really like that desk.
How Much I Actually Stand
Some days maybe an hour, some days maybe four. It depends on my mood or how much caffeine I’ve had. I’m off and on with the walking pad too, same deal. Your feet do get tired from standing, so I’ve got one of those anti-fatigue things, except it’s not a mat. It’s a board you glide around on to keep your feet moving. That’s the Gaiam Evolve below, and it’s on the floor under the desk right now.
Gaiam Evolve Balance Board
Not a mat. It rocks a little under you, so your feet keep moving the whole time you’re up, and that’s what keeps them from getting tired on a hard floor.
- 27 by 12 inches and 3.65 inches tall, rated to 250 pounds (Gaiam’s listing)
- Honeycomb non slip texture on the base, for hard floors and carpet (Gaiam’s listing)
- Trade-off: It’s 27 inches of board living on the floor at the desk, so it’s a thing to step around once you’re back in the chair.
Current price and availability shown on Amazon.
What’s on It
The Stream Deck got its own post. The mic is a Shure MV7X, which I got from Sweetwater, sitting in an Elgato Wave Mic Arm clamped to the desk, and it runs into an Elgato Wave XLR. Both of those are the originals; the Wave Mic Arm MK.2 and the Wave XLR MK.2 are the current versions, so those are the ones linked. The mouse is a Logitech G502 Lightspeed, the keyboard is a Ducky One 2 TKL, and the monitor is the 49 inch Odyssey G9 that’s in every photo of this desk. All of it, with the current version linked where mine’s been discontinued, is on the Shop page.
What I’d Change
Looking back at it, I wish I’d bought a deeper one. 24 inches is the standard butcher block depth, and I like a little more arm room than that, cause of the things sitting on the desk between me and the monitor, like the Stream Deck and the Wave XLR. That’s the one thing I’d change. Honestly, that’s it.
What I Took From It
Years in, it goes up, it goes down, it doesn’t wobble, and it’s the color I picked instead of the color they had. The lean-and-drop thing is on me, the depth is the one regret, and I’d do it the same way again, just deeper.
The rest of what’s on the desk, the keyboard and the monitor and the Stream Deck, lives over on the Nerdy Stuff hub.
If you built yours, tell me in the comments what you put on top and whether you got the store to cut it. Mine wouldn’t.