3 hacks to make your Micke Desk more useful

The MICKE range is one of the more affordable desk ranges in IKEA.

But don’t let the price tag fool you, the simple desks are highly functional with a lot of customization options to fit your home office or kid’s room. 

Here’s what we know about the IKEA MICKE desk

It comes in 4 designs: 

1. Small desk at only 28 3/4″ (73cm) wide with one drawer. ($49)

2. Medium desk at 41 3/8″ (105cm) wide with 2 storage drawers — one large and one small. Under the small drawer is an adjustable storage unit. The storage unit can be mounted on the left or right side of the desk. ($79)

3. Long desk at 55 7/8″ (142cm) with two wide drawers. ($79)

4. Corner workstation with add-on unit ($149)

Rounding up the range is a drawer unit / drop file storage with casters. The drawer unit is at the same height as the desk, letting you quickly expand the work surface of your desk. 

The last component is the MICKE add-on unit which fits the medium desk and provides a lot of open storage. The add-on unit sits on top of the table with the larger section positioned as a monitor hutch.

The two side panels extend above the top shelf forming bookends to stop books falling off the edge. Adjustable shelves help you use your space more efficiently. The whole combination must be placed and secured against a wall to avoid the risk of tipping.

The MICKE table top has a cable outlet at the back for your electronics.

Style wise, it has one steel leg in epoxy powder coating and the other in fiberboard.

IKEA currently offers the MICKE range in white, black-brown, white/anthracite and the latest, anthracite/red. My personal favorite is the MICKE white desk with 2 drawers under the long table design.

What is it made of?

It’s made mainly of particleboard and fiberboard with IKEA’s signature honeycomb structure paper filling. On the outside, it is protected with acrylic paint. Care instructions recommend keeping the desk dry and wiping clean with a damp cloth. 

As wonderful as the IKEA MICKE desk is, let’s see how we can milk more mileage out of this decidedly Scandinavian style desk.

IKEA hacks for the MICKE desk

#1 Add a Keyboard tray 

Two of the chief complaints of the IKEA MICKE desk from people using it as computer desks:

1. The desk lacks ‘depth’, meaning that if you put the keyboard in front of the monitor, the monitor is too close to your eyes.

2. The drawer hangs too low, so if you adjust your chair to the right height to keyboard, you hit your knees on the underside of the drawer.

A keyboard tray seems to solve both issues. Instead of inserting the drawer into the drawer tracks, attached the drawers’ tracks to a piece of pine 2cm thick, to act as the keyboard tray.

See this post for full instructions.

For the larger MICKE desk, I would suggest this separate keyboard drawer hack over at Reddit.

#2 Pair it with a computer tower

The MICKE work surface too small? An easy way to solve this is to bring in another item of the same desk height, placed at the side of the desk. The obvious choice would be the MICKE drawer unit but it may not meet your needs. 

Such as when you want to accommodate a computer tower.    

It turns out that the dimensions of the thin JONAXEL frame is the perfect size for the computer’s processor and an accidental extension option for the MICKE.  The height of the small shelving unit plus casters is exactly the height of the IKEA MICKE desk.

While the open back design allows for air ventilation of the computer tower, it may not be always adequate. Add some fans at the back panel to cool the unit if required.

For this, you’ll need to get the JONAXEL frame and top shelf. Discard the middle shelf to house the computer. 

Here are the details of this hack.

#3 Accessories for organized drawers

Liza bought a MICKE desk (width 55 7/8; depth 19 5/8; height 29 1/2). However, she soon found the drawers becoming cluttered.

While walking through IKEA to get some inspiration and pick up a few items she found the ALMHULT cutlery tray ($2.99).

Liza picked up two of these and traced her steps back to the work station exhibit to find a MICKE desk to see if these trays would fit, and they did with space at the side. 

As you can see from the photo they are five compartments that allow you to store all your needs to have an effective work station.

(Ed’s note: The ALMHULT is discontinued. The STÖDJA cutlery tray may work just as well. Cut the sections to configure the best storage organizer for your drawer.)

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