Grovemade desk review

I didn't expect the sparkle to last quite so long with this desk, but it has. I'm not talking about a physical sparkle, of course, I mean that 'freshly impressed with new furniture' feeling. I've been using the Grovemade standing desk system—AKA the Grovemade desk—for a few months now, and I'm still a little in awe of it when I enter my office each morning.

But that's par for the course with a luxury desk like this: it's supposed to engender that reaction. Lush, solid walnut with very deliberately curved and angled edges isn't meant to go unappreciated.

Saying that, I'd also be doing the desk a disservice if I said it was just a luxury walnut/oak/maple desk. In addition to this, it has a sitting-standing motor with two memory positions, and perhaps more importantly, it's managed to cram in a decent amount of storage and cable management.

That's thanks to the huge hidden underside drawer, plus the long power supply, extension socket, and cable management area that's also well-hidden by a wooden panel that slides up and down. These two additions are what really set the Grovemade desk apart from other expensive luxury desks.

The idea is to have a desk that doesn't sacrifice a minimalist and decluttered look, but still recognises that we exist in a device-filled and still partially wired world. If you want minimalism, you're going to need places to store your devices, and if you're using devices, you're probably going to need to use cables at least some of the time. This desk is designed to straddle that boundary, and I think it does so very well.

These storage and cable management needs are especially acute for PC gamers, which is why many of the best gaming desks have cable management zones which are practical but also very visible, and sometimes storage solutions such as pegboards. Grovemade has tried to give us the benefits of these solutions without so much eyesore, in keeping with the price tag.

And therein is the kicker. If all this sounds too good to be true, well, it is too good to be true if you're on any semblance of a moderate budget. For the full, solid wood deal, you're looking at $3,200 without a discount. You can get a plywood version for $2,500 (again without discount), but when you're already in the thousands, I reckon it's worth it to spend a few hundred extra for solid wood. If you're committed to getting a luxury piece of furniture, you don't want to stop halfway.

That's an astronomically high price tag for most people, myself included, but for the kind of product it is, and the quality of the materials it uses, it makes sense. Big desks made of just two or three joined slabs of solid oak, maple, or walnut—those are your options—will likely run you above $2,000, sometimes much higher. Throw in the sit-stand functionality and the big, hidden drawer, and the price tag makes sense. It's not cheap, but it's not your average desk.

The finishing touches are lovely, too. I've already mentioned the slightly curved slant to the edges, but I'd also like to touch upon the drawer's sliding mechanism. The sides are free-hanging, which looks great, and the sliding mechanism consists of two runner strips on the underside of the desk, which the drawer latches onto along the two wooden compartment separator strips.

This is apparently inspired by the design of CNC machines, and it is incredibly smooth to open and close. It does mean you don't get to hang anything off the side, though, including mic arms and the like.

A final finishing touch I like is the placement of the sit/stand control panel. When you build the desk, you can choose whether to place it closer to the edge so it's more visible, or further back underneath the drawer so you can't see it. I chose the latter, to fit in with the minimalist theme, and I'm glad I did, as it's great to just double-tap an unseen button to move it to standing position. It's easy to unscrew it and put it in the other spot, too, if you change your mind.

Then we come to cable management, and here we've certainly got more than most desks, but it's not perfect. The main bulk of your cable management is intended to be done behind the slide-down panel underneath the desk and behind the drawer, in the long channel where the sit/stand power supply and extension sockets sit.

In addition to this channel for cables and plugs, you get a gap that's as wide as a USB-A connector running across the desk, which looks quite smart. The idea is you can have USB-C charging and other USB-A or thinner charging cables running up directly through the desk, and you can even sit a USB hub down there to tuck away all your laptop or PC peripheral cables.

That's great in theory, but for a PC gamer using lots of different kinds of peripherals and cables, the stylish cut-out isn't wide enough for some purposes. The Razer charging mouse pad I'm using, for instance, has a blocky electromagnetic interference choke near the end, so it won't fit through (though I guess one could call that a con of the mouse pad, it not having a detachable cable).

My mic's XLR cable won't fit through, either, and some larger gaming laptop power cables might struggle, too, though I found the bespoke charger on the Asus TUF A14 to fit through, and I bet most modern chargers would, too, as they tend to be no wider than a USB-A connector.

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There are also routing holes for cables in the rear side of the drawer, so you can charge your devices while they're inside. If you're using a gaming laptop at your desk, I'd assume you'll want that power cable routed up top so you can have it plugged in while you game, but if it's a tablet, phone, or work laptop, charging it in the drawer and then having it cable-free up top looks like the goal.

There's also the possibility of using the drawer to house your laptop while it's turned on and plugged in, routing your cables up top to connect to your external monitor, keyboard, and mouse. Grovemade itself mentions this as a use case on its product page, aided by all the slots in the drawer for ventilation. For gaming, though, I doubt many will use it like that.

If I have a gaming laptop, I'm keeping it up top, and if I have a desktop, well, that obviously isn't going in the drawer, either. (Side-note: the top is spacious enough for even my Fractal Design Define R4 tower, and it supports the weight of a heavy gaming PC and two monitors plus peripherals just fine, with a max carry capacity of 270 lbs.)

The drawer itself is pretty huge, at least in terms of length and width. Depth is a different story, and will require some careful planning—or, if you're like me, lots of trial and error. That's because to achieve the flush, seamless look, Grovemade has gone for a sloped wedge design, so there's more room at the back of the drawer than the front. Grovemade claims you get 1.5 inches at the front, and this tapers to 2.5 inches at the back.

I can't imagine even a chunky laptop will struggle to fit in the main compartment, but the Lenovo Legion Go S only fits if it's pushed all the way to the back thanks to its joysticks. It's also worth noting that you get 11.25 inches of space from front to back in the main compartment, which won't be enough for an 18-inch gaming laptop but should be enough for a 16-inch one.

The shallower front sections are good for things like earbud cases, stationery, and dongles, but that's it. Annoyingly, it doesn't fit my glasses case—it fits my glasses without the case, though. It's also worth noting you'll have to scoot yourself back to open the drawer fully and access the larger rear sections of the drawer.

Overall, I'm very happy with the drawer, even if it can be frustrating when certain things don't fit in the front sections or near the front of the rear sections. Once you've figured out what's going where, it's a breeze.

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The desk was pretty straightforward to build, too, in no small part thanks to the very helpful 25-page instruction manual. That chonky booklet was scary to behold, but once I got into the swing of it, it was fine. All told, it took me about two hours to build; there are plenty of steps, but none of them is particularly difficult. The diagrams are clear, as are the instructions, and the booklet is even kind enough to tell you when you're about halfway through and should go and get hydrated.

It is a two-person job, though. Even if you're strong, you're not going to want to risk flipping this thing over during one of the final steps on your lonesome. It's a wide, cumbersome, heavy desk that you really don't want to risk damaging. Fixing the screws on the legs would be easier with two people, too, but I did that alone, only getting a friend to help for the final desk flip.

Speaking of damage, though, a word of warning: Be careful when putting the desk together, especially if you're using a soft wood like walnut. There's a part of the building process that involves placing the drawer on the upside-down desk top before screwing it in.

I didn't get the holes aligned, and so I thought I'd just push the drawer up into proper alignment, but as I moved the drawer, it left a big scratch on the wood. Thankfully, this is on the underside of the desk, so I'll never see it, but that scratching sound did scare me a little. I'd recommend getting those drawer holes aligned without much scooting around, if possible.

Once the desk's built, all that's left to do is start your sit/stand control panel and set up your two preferred heights. The manual includes simple instructions on how to do so.

There are some handy accessories you can get for your fancy desk, too, such as a shelf to sit on top of the desk, a tray either for said shelf or again just to sit on top, or a desk pad. I have the former two, and the shelf does add some extra space and cable-tidy crevices. It hides my mic's XLR cable, for instance, which plugs into my interface that's also housed under the desk shelf. The tray mainly keeps my phone inside to help stop me checking it every five minutes.

These additions are all, inevitably, very expensive, but when you're starting at $3,200, what's another couple hundred?

If you're in it purely for the PC gaming pragmatics—if you just want a big desk that'll fit your nice fish tank chassis and myriad cables underneath—there are cheaper options that offer easier routing for bigger cables. But if you want a genuinely classy, minimalist look, plus storage space and plenty in the way of cable management, the Grovemade desk is as close to perfect as you'll get. Not completely perfect, mind, but it's in the right zip code.