Ikea SKARSTA Desk Impressions: Like a BEKANT or GALANT?

About this time last year, the BEKANT desk appeared to be on its way in and the GALANT on its way out. Things didn't happen exactly as I thought they would. It appears a year later now, this is what I think and not official word, that the BEKANT has mostly replaced the GALANT, but the GALANT remains as a lower cost alternative. I could still see the GALANT available in two rectangular options with either A-legs or T-legs on the American and Canadian Ikea websites as of early August 2015. And something new caught my eye today...


Underside of an Ikea BEKANT

The SKARSTA Desk sit/stand
I first discovered two SKARSTA desks under the "Desks & Computer desks" section on the Canadian Ikea website in very early August 2015. However, clicking on their links sent me back to the section's main page. So, I went to visit the American site: the SKARSTAs were listed and had working links. When I checked, they were not available for sale online (U.S. site) yet. The stock check function for the Brooklyn, NY and East Palo Alto, CA stores showed them as "Not in stock" -- I only bothered checking two, west and east coasts felt sufficient.

Disclaimer: I had not had any firsthand experience with any SKARSTA products when I wrote this piece. Details were quoted from the Ikea United States website or Canada website in the first few days of August 2015. Details on this page are NOT guaranteed for accuracy.

First Impressions from Photos
Just by looking at the few product images available, the SKARSTA appeared to be a BEKANT or GALANT desk with T-legs on the surface. A major difference was that the leg columns were angular or more square in shape compared to the rounded BEKANT or GALANT desks. The two rectangular SKARSTA desks I looked at also seemed to have desktops with sharp corners, similar to GALANT desks -- BEKANT desks of similar shape and size appeared to have rounded corners.

Mutant Hybrid GALANT Desk with A-Legs and a T-Leg

What really stood out was what looked like a hand-crank under the SKARSTA. I had seen some desks available on Amazon before with these when researching the BEKANT sit/stand desks. Those were also sit/stand desks. It wasn't that hard to put two and two together when I saw that the SKARSTA desks were listed as "Desk sit/stand, white."

What is the SKARSTA?
Going from the product descriptions, the SKARSTA was, as previously mentioned, a "Desk sit/stand." They were only available in white when I checked the webpage. The materials listed under the product descriptions were numerous and appeared to be pretty standard for Ikea furniture not made of solid wood. My impression was that it was a mix of particleboard and steel et al.

Under "Key features" was a note that the desk height could be adjusted "between 27 1/2" and 47 1/4" by just cranking the handle..." Another interesting detail was under "Product dimensions" with "Max. load: 110 lb."

The two sizes available were 63" x 31.5" for US$ 269.00 (CA$ 279.00) and 47.25" x 27.5" for US$ 229.00 (CA$ 259.00).

What about the Height Adjustable BEKANTs?
Unless I missed something, the cheapest sit/stand BEKANT with a height adjustment mechanism I could find at the time was the 63" x 31.5" version in all white for US$ 469.00 (CA$ 579.00). Its height was supposedly adjustable between 22" and 48" as listed under "Key features" -- this desk was rated for "Max. load: 154 lb".

And for comparison's sake, the cheapest BEKANT was the 47.25" x 31.5" version in all white for US$ 139.00 (CA$ 169.00). Height was supposedly adjustable between 25.625" and 33.5".

So, the 63" x 31.5" BEKANT was US$ 200 more than the 63" x 31.5" SKARSTA. It looked like the SKARSTA had a narrower height range of 27.5" to 47.25" compared to the BEKANT's 22" to 48" range. The BEKANT also seemed to have a higher weight capacity of 154 lb versus the SKARSTA's 110 lb maximum. Oh, and the BEKANT used an electric height adjustment mechanism, not hand-powered.

An extra $200 appeared to buy a motor, a moderately larger height range, and a lot more weight capacity.

Final Thoughts
With the release of the SKARSTA, it appears that Ikea has a cheaper stand/sit desk alternative to the BEKANT -- kind of like the GALANT for regular sit-only desks?

I would prefer the SKARSTA just to avoid the hassle of dealing with a motor and having to plug the desk in. The crank could break too, but then the price would allow me to purchase two SKARSTAS in place of one similarly sized BEKANT. Pretty interesting development. I'll stick to the two GALANTs I have for the next while though -- still haven't picked up a BEKANT yet.


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