DIY Keyboard Tray for Ikea Besta Desk

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Recently we purchased a white Ikea Besta Desk with the integrated cable tray under the back of the desk. The tray is great for organising cables and power boards.

Ikea Besta Desk White

I like the way that they cables and everything is hidden under the desk, but I ran into a lot of problems finding a keyboard tray for the desk because of the cable management outlet on the back. The first tray that I tried was the Ikea Summera Pull-out keyboard shelf. It was a good first choice since it’s only $15.00 in Australia, and it’s from the same store I bought the desk from…

Ikea Summera Pull-out keyboard shelf

The problem I had with the Summera keyboard shelf was the long steel rods coming out the back of the back of the keyboard tray. The only way I could have made it work is to have drilled holes through the front wall of the cable tray.

After failing with the Ikea Summera keyboard I tried a Fellowes Underdesk Keyboard Drawer from Officeworks. This keyboard tray was significantly more expensive than the Ikea tray at $70, but I thought I would give it a try…

Fellowes Underdesk Keyboard Drawer

Unfortunately the arms on the sides of this one was also much too long. If I were to install this keyboard tray it would have extended out past the front of the desk about 10cm, or 4″. It was pretty ugly, and didn’t fit my Logitech Wireless Mk550 Keyboard, which extended out past the back of the tray.

With only 34.8 cm between the front of the desk and the cable management tray I was pretty much stuck without option at this point for buying a tray. Since the desk is only 120cm wide I did really want a tray for my keyboard and mouse to free up some space on the desk. This pretty much left my only option as being a DIY solution …

Building a DIY Keyboard Tray

Prestige 300mm25kg Drawer SlideI headed over to Bunnings to pick up the hardware that I needed to build a keyboard tray. In the end all I had to pick up for two items:

  • White Melamine Shelf - 1200x300c16mm
  • Prestige 300mm/25kg Drawer Slide

The shelf cost about $12.50 and the drawer slide $7.00. So for less than $20 I was able to build myself a full width keyboard tray.

I cut the melamine shelf down to 1138mm (should have probably done it to 1135 as it was a bit tight, but still worked). After cutting it down I attached the tray part of the slides to the edges of the shelf.

Cut the Melamine Shelf to 1135mm

I then attached the drawer slides to the top holes in the side of the desk. Two of the holes lined up perfectly for the drawer slide, but I added two other screws (which were included with the drawer slides) to make sure it was secure. You could probably adjust this down one more hole if you wanted more clearance for your keyboard and mouse.

Attach Drawer Slide to Top Holes

In the end I finished up with a keyboard tray almost the full width of the desk, with plenty of room for notepaper, the keyboard, and the mouse, all for under $20.00! A much better deal than the Fellows Keyboard Tray, and much more functional than the Ikea Summa keyboard shelf…


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25 Replies to “DIY Keyboard Tray for Ikea Besta Desk”

  1. yurtkuran

    Podcasting related question, in pictures 7&8 above, what shock mount and pop filter are you using?  Thanks!

  3. billhutchison

    yurtkuranI actually ordered it from eBay in China for under $10. The link to the shock mount and filter is below:
    - http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=400507361807&ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:AU:3160

  4. BryanStinchfield

    I just made one of these shelves for my dark colored Besta desk, THANK YOU for posting this! I used a 12″ drawer slide from Home Depot plus a dark color, $4 shelf! I had the people at Home Depot cut it for me, had them cut it just under 44.75″. 
    All in all with the cost of the shelf and the drawer slides it was only a $8.99 project before tax!
    Only thing was that I did have holes that lined up with the holes on the desk but the holes drilled into the drawer slide were larger than the provided screws, so I had to guesstimate and add some holes … more or less even, good enough for me!

    THANK YOU again for posting this!!

  6. BryanStinchfield

    billhutchison BryanStinchfield Ya, looks like it! I did get a shelf on clearance and was fortunate to find the 12″ drawer slides cheap though; the 12″ slides (304.8mm) aren’t common but they were cheap … I think it was cheaper for the custom made pull out from this tutorial than it was for the slide out keyboard drawer from ikea! I did do what you didn’t want to do and I cut holes in the back panel (on the cable holder) so it would fit, and it worked well, but it wasn’t big enough. 
    For anyone installing the ikea slide out cheap keyboard drawer, you need to make holes for the rails of the drawer to slide into and you need to use wall anchors to hold it in; the material in use for the top of the desk isn’t substantial enough to hold the drawer in, its a hollow, honeycomb structure inside, which makes it strong, but it doesn’t have enough strength or material to hold standard screws. They kept falling out on me and I found that the metal wall anchors were the only thing substantial enough to hold them in. Good luck, but I strongly recommend this tutorial over the keyboard drawer from ikea – you get a full desk width of space instead of a tiny pull out drawer, and it was actually MUCH easier to follow this over getting the keyboard drawer installed with the wall anchors.

  7. sushmag

    Thank’s  for giving me such an wonderful idea. I am also going to order
    this type of shelf. It is really very interesting. The keyboard tray is
    also very nice. If you have any difficulty than please visit the site –
      http://www.novaproducts.com.au

  8. ScottStillwell1

    This is cool. having trouble finding the right shelf though.  I think theirs one at Ikea that could work. I just dont know if its wide enough.

  9. BryanStinchfield

    Just go to a home depot, lowes or any home hardware store and look for a 12″ deep x 45″+ wide shelf. At home depot, I told them I needed it to be cut down to 44.75″ wide and they did it free of charge. 

    You’re going to put shelf rails on the sides, so it doesn’t matter that a side it unfinished and then one side will be facing the back of the desk, so again, it doesn’t matter that it isn’t finished.

  10. ScottStillwell1

    BryanStinchfield Thanks. I’m pretty stoked.. I’m using this table as a music workstation, i feel like this tray will be more than long enough to accommodate my 25 key Midi keyboard

  11. BryanStinchfield

    ScottStillwell1 BryanStinchfield  You got it all setup? I’m no handyman (but I’m pretty darn good with setting up ikea furniture) and with homedepot cutting the wood for me, I think I got it all setup in 15 minutes. The shelf has been rock solid since installing it. 

    Enjoy with your keyboard! i’m sure it’ll be plenty wide enough!

    in the instructions they show that the shelf was mounted in the top most hole in the desk, I did it one lower than that and it works great – perfect height for ergonomics for me

  12. ScottStillwell1

    BryanStinchfield ScottStillwell1No, I’m holding off on the desk until I get my paycheck, but I’ve got the wood and sliders. and some of the other stuff I need to fix it up for recording.  I was planning on doing it one lower as well to fit the keyboard. I sat at the desk at Ikea and it seemed to have enough room for me as well.

  13. EdwardThirlwall

    Even though I am not that much of a shopper, but I most certainly know discounts are very much welcomed. We were at a storage in Sydney and we did manage to visit Birkenhead Point Outlet. The prices there are relatively cheaper than normal stores because they make bulk purchases which cost much lesser, therefore charging customers lesser too. It works in a similar way if we were to stock up our food products in bulk which will definitely be cheaper than individually.

  14. Ava

    I am looking for the $15 Ikea pull-out keyboard tray that you mentioned above. I went to the Ikea website but could not find it. Would you have any recommendations for a cheap keyboard tray? Thanks!

  16. Shannon

    Have you ran into any problems having a keyboard tray that long? The brackets I bought warn against making the shelf over 60cm, but my tray will be 90cm, basically the length of my desk. Has your tray kept secure? Thanks!

  18. Matt

    Hi, Bill! Great project :). I’m wondering what you used for the dark, semi-circular desk topper? I’d like to do something similar for my DIY desk build. Best wishes!

    —M

  20. Stark

    Looks great, but one issue for me is that I like to put my feet up on the left side of the desk. So I would need mounting hardware that attaches the rails to the under side of the desk, not the sides.

    Since I’m unable to source a good desk with an adequate KB/M tray, I’ve run out of options.

  21. Anton

    Do you think this desk would be able to accommodate a pull out tray with a depth of 400mm carrying a weight of 15kg. I understand it may stick out a little. It’s for my music keyboard dimensions w1045 x h122 x d391

  22. Bill Hutchison Post author

    I finally got to measuring my desk and tray and don’t think it would fit very well. The back of the desk, where the cables are, is 35cm from the front of the desk, so it would stick out at least 5cm.

    Also the height for my keyboard is only 42mm, if you were to put the tray low enough to fit your music keyboard, 122mm, you would need a very short chair to fit under it. Even with my officechair lowered as much as possible, I would not fit.

    Sorry, wish I had better news for you.

  23. Bill Hutchison Post author

    Kensington has an under desk keyboard tray that mounts under the desk, rather than to the sides. One problem that I could see putting that under this desk though is that it, like many furniture items from Ikea, is actually hollow, so I’m not sure if you would have the strength to properly support the keyboard and tray by mounting it under…

    https://www.kensington.com/au/au/4474/60004/smartfit-underdesk-comfort-keyboard-drawer

    I’m sure that there are other companies that sell trays that mount under the desk, but I reckon that all of them would have the strength problem with the hollow core of the desk.

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