For the last half year or so, I've been working at a standing desk at Visual Lizard. It wasn't much of a construction job, consisting of just a couple stationery boxes and a spare plank of wood, but it did the job. Since August last year, I've adapted well, having no trouble standing all day to do my coding, writing, etc. I find myself more alert and more focused all day.
The catch is I had adapted too well. I often had an issue working at home, a place I associated with rest and relaxation. Attempting to accomplish any task at my desk at home became more problematic after I got used to a standing desk at work because I started to equate sitting with "taking a break". So I decided to "build" a standing desk at home, too.
I had a desk at home that I wasn't interested in completely replacing. Ignoring the cost in buying a whole desk, standing or otherwise, mine is triangular shaped, set in a corner of my room. I would have a hard time finding something to squeeze in that space, and my small studio apartment didn't have the floorspace to accommodate too much rearrangement.
Instead, I took some online advice. I went to Ikea with the measurements of my home desk. I also had the measurements of my standing desk arrangement at work, so I knew what height was comfortable for me. Thanks to the provided paper tape measures at Ikea, I spent an hour measuring all the side table and coffee tables in the showroom until I found a low-cost solution.
Twenty five dollars later, I had a wood coffee table the perfect height. I went for a wide rectangular coffee table to have room on the side for my mouse on the right, and any possible beverage on my left. I spent a buck or two buying some felt pad stickers for the bottom of the legs, so it doesn't scratch my desk surface.
It works pretty well! Already, I'm more inclined to do some productive when at my computer. And it looks fairly handsome too; I wasn't concerned with the colour, but the darker shade compliments the Macbook Air's keys nicely. I may have to finally replace my stationery-box-wood-plank work setup with something similar in the near future :)