My friend Anne-Marie Faiola, CEO and founder of Brambleberry, tweeted that she just put in a treadmill desk in her office. I saw a picture of it and was inspired to make one for my wife and I. I figure I could probably get an hour of exercise every day just by having a desk on top of my treadmill. This weekend I went to Home Depot and bought the materials to build out a super cheap DIY treadmill desk. I did a little research on the Internet to see what other people had made and it seems like most people screw the desk onto the treadmill which requires drilling holes into the handles and using mounting brackets. I watched this YouTube video before I came up with my own idea. I decided to take a different approach. I wanted to secure it on but have the flexibility of being able to remove the desk without having to unscrew it.
I ended up using the following materials:
- Wood shelf (11.8″ D x 35.8″ W): $7.84
- Hook and Eyes (need four): $1.96
- 24″ Bungee Cords (need two): $6.89
Tools used:
- Dewalt Cordless Drill
For less than $17.00 in materials, I constructed the desk in less than 15 minutes. It feels very sturdy. I’m pretty sure that I will be putting one of these inside thinkspace too. I think our team office will have one so that my team can use it when they want to. I’m on the hunt for a used treadmill on Craigslist which I’ve seen running anywhere from $150 – $250 for the same Nordic Trac treadmill that I own. Cheap! If you’re in need of more table space and money is not an object, you can get a Steelcase Walkstation which costs $4,199. It’s quite amazing looking and if I had money to burn I’d like one of these. Another option is the TrekDesk Treadmill Desk which has a larger surface area and costs $479.
