Friska Stockholm standing desk review

Friska Stockholm Standing Desk: Two minute review

If you're in the market for a standing desk, chances are you may have had a look around stores such as Ikea to find yourself a cheap deal, which certainly isn't a bad idea if you're on a tight budget. If you're looking for an altogether more premium, customizable offering though then there's another Swedish desk manufacturer that should be on your radar.

Friska has a great selection of electric sit/stand desks that you can choose from to suit your needs, with its Stockholm range representing the bulk of its designs. On the surface this might not seem like anything to shout home about, at least if you're familiar with the traditional style of standing desks, but what it lacks in unique aesthetics, it more than makes up for with customization options.

The ability to tailor the desk to your exact requirements also makes the Friska Stockholm standing desk more affordable than you'd assume, which is great news for those who want the numerous health benefits of a standing desk, without it costing the earth. 

Similarly, this also means you can make the desk as luxurious as you like, with the option to include different colors of frame, topper and additional specifications or accessories such as cable port holes and upgraded controls.

Even budget-friendly standing desks are a big purchase, and both something that you want to jump into buying blindly. With Friska having such a variety of configurations, it's thankfully pretty easy to select options to suit your needs without breaking the bank, and the build quality is sturdy and reliable enough to ensure that your purchase should last you many years.

Friska Stockholm Standing Desk: Pricing and availability

Pricing for the Friska Stockhold desk starts at £749 (around $920 / AU$1,300), and shipping to the UK is both free and exceptionally fast, offering next-day delivery if you place your order before 2pm. Pricing doesn't change if you select any of the various color options available for the frame or topper, so if the aesthetic is your only concern then you can make adjustments for the desk to suit your environment at no additional cost.

The size of the topper can also be adjusted if you wanted to have a slighter deeper or longer surface area for your equipment, though these kinds of adjustments are what will drive the price up. For example, switching from the default 1200mm x 700mm to the largest size of 1800mm x 800mm will cost you an additional £50 (around $60 / AU$90), which feels like a reasonable price.

You can also include some optional extras such as a cable management tray, cable port holes, in-desk power sockets and more premium operational controls with a memory switch if you wanted to jazz up your order.

Unfortunately one of the biggest issues with the Friska range is shipping, as unsurprisingly it can be fairly expensive to ship such a large product overseas. It's clear that the target market for Friska is the mainland UK given its free shipping, though other regions are also available at an additional cost. 

Shipping to the USA will take an estimated 1-2 weeks and costs a flat rate of £498 ($610), but other regions such as Australia are excluded entirely. Most of Europe is thankfully included, but while the Friska website provides an option to switch from displaying prices in GBP to Euros, this doesn't appear to be working correctly at the time of writing.

Friska Stockholm Standing Desk: Design

The Friska Stockholm is configurable in a range of different sizes as the frame can be adjusted to accommodate different toppers. The base kit is typically the same, with all parts arriving well protected in cardboard and polystyrene, though any optional extras will be shipped in a separate box.

If you do include any extras such as an upgraded control switch or built-in power socket then it's important that you remember to open the smallest of the boxes first before you start building as this will contain the instructions specific to your configuration.

Unfortunately the desks are all shipped with a set of generic desk building instructions and hardware, which can result in some confusion as the manual may not provide the correct guidelines to put together your specific desk. This also extends to skrews and accessories as we found that some of these configurations will require different assembly requirements, so if you follow a set of instructions that ship with the main desk, you might later discover the actual assembly manual you should have been following after most of the desk has been constructed.

If you selected any options that require additional holes or larger capacity spaces for accessories then all of these come pre-drilled, and assembly guidelines are marked on the toppers to make fixing the frame to the worktop as painless as possible.

The standard control hub is a straight-forward two-button affair with up and down arrows to mark the direction of the desk movement. These are silicone-coated for grip and have a satisfying clicking sensation, but don't come with any option to save height presets for easy adjustments. If this functionality was something you required then Friska has an upgrade available for an additional £99 (around $120 / AU$170), though you'll still get the standard control switch included within the delivery, which can feel a tad wasteful.

The Friska Stockholm features dual motors that allow the desk to be lowered all the way down to 62cm or raised up to 130cm (if measured from the surface of the desk), and the desk can hold a maximum weight load of 264.4lbs (120kg). These stats are nothing to sniff at, and the weight limit is sufficient to not sure bear the weight of a sizable desktop computer and all your other office equipment, but is also stable enough for a fully-grown adult male to stand on if required (though we certainly don't suggest doing this regularly).

The topper itself comes in a selection of different styles, such as black, white and a variety of wood and granite-inspired looks, though all of these are artificial vinyl wrapped around engineered wood so if you wanted a solid wood option you'll have to look elsewhere.

Friska Stockholm Standing Desk: Features

If you don't include any of the optional upgrades then the Friska Stockholm is fairly bare, but you get all the essential features that make it a worthy investment. The up/down controls are a tad rudimentary, but with a movement speed of 42mm per second, it's quick to make adjustments while not displacing any of the equipment placed on its surface.

A criticism we have if you do opt for the upgraded memory switch is that you still need to hold the control buttons down while the desk is moving, even if you select onto one of the two available buttons that allows you to save a specific height (a useful feature if you want to switch between your ideal sitting and standing positions). It would be nicer instead to see a one-touch adjustment for saved height profiles, but it works as intended otherwise.

The desk itself will ship in two or three boxes: the topper, the frame and internal mechanisms, and then a smaller box with optional extras, specific assembly instructions and correct skrews for desks that require it.

As mentioned, the main frame shipment box will also contain generic desk assembly instructions which can cause some confusion, but providing you open the smallest box first shouldn't be an issue. The packaging does a great job at protecting all of the desk parts, and nothing arrived with any damage. Friska recommends laying down a blanket or using the desk’s box to protect it during assembly. This holds true for other standing desks as well as it can be quite easy to scratch a desktop or even your floor when putting one together.

Assembling the Friska Stockholm was a simple matter. The instructions are clear, well-illustrated and written in fluent English, and while it recommends that two people assemble the desk due to its hefty weight when completed, a single individual can complete most of the assembly alone providing someone is able to help flip the desk into the correct position when the frame has been attached to the topper.

From here, it’s just a matter of plugging the desk’s motor into the power adapter at its rear and plugging in the power cable before flipping over the finished desk. This is also a great time to use the included cable clamps to tidy up some of the cables so that they don’t droop and look out of place once you flip over the desk. These are provided within the box as a freebie, though unlike the screw holes there are no guides on where to place them so you can use as many or as few as you'd like to keep the underside of the desk neat.

Should I buy the Friska Stockholm Standing Desk?

Buy it if:

Don’t buy it if:

First reviewed: May 2022

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