Herman Miller Jarvis Bamboo
The Jarvis was the desk that taught the internet what a good standing desk costs, and it survived the collapse of the company that made it. Fully was folded into MillerKnoll and shut down in 2025; the Jarvis now sells only through Herman Miller and Design Within Reach, and only in bamboo and laminate. What you get is unchanged and still excellent: three-stage legs with 25.5 inches of travel, a 350 lb rating, and a solid bamboo top that is a genuinely nicer surface than the laminate most desks at this price ship. Owners are consistent that it runs quietly and moves less at standing height than the price tier would suggest, though a 72-inch bamboo top on two legs still moves. Two caveats that follow from the shutdown: the configurator is a shadow of what it was, and the seven-year warranty is now shorter than several competitors offer at half the price.
Who this desk fits
estimated, not measured
Reaching 25.5″ at the bottom and 51″ at the top, this desk can hit both a sitting and a standing elbow height for people roughly 5′4″ to 6′10″ tall.
How the height is quoted: Working-surface height with the ¾-inch solid bamboo top on the three-stage frame, as the Herman Miller store lists it (25½–51 in); a two-stage frame (30–49⅜ in) and a 3 Stage Low frame (23–43¼ in) are also sold.
Enter your height — 5'11", 71 or 180cm all work.
What ~$1,345 buys: Complete 48×27 bamboo desk on the three-stage frame with the up/down handset; the programmable handset adds $30, and a 72×30 is $1,545.
Specifications
At a glance
Features
- Three-stage legs, 25.5–51 in at the surface
- Solid bamboo top in three sizes
- 350 lb rated lift, 1.5 in/s
- Four presets on the programmable handset, a $30 option
- Sub-50 dB operation
- 7-year frame, motor and electronics warranty
In its favour
- A solid bamboo top rather than the laminate most desks at this price use
- 51 inches at the top makes it one of the few desks tall users can genuinely stand at
- Owners consistently describe it as quiet and steadier than expected for a two-leg frame
- The three-stage design gives 25.5 inches of travel, near the top of the field
- A decade-old design with a long service history and widely available spare parts
Against it
- Fully is gone; the range is now two surface options sold through Herman Miller and Design Within Reach
- Seven years is short next to the fifteen and twenty-year warranties competitors now offer
- Owners with 72-inch bamboo tops still report movement at standing height
- Cable management is an add-on even at $1,345
- The 25.5-inch minimum on the three-stage frame is higher than the best of the current crop
These points draw on the published specification and on what owners of this desk consistently report.
What owners say
Summarised from owner discussions and long-term write-ups, not from anything we tested ourselves.
The Jarvis was the desk that taught a generation of home-office buyers what a good standing desk costs, and it survived the company that made it: Fully was absorbed into MillerKnoll and shut down, and the desk now sells only in bamboo and laminate through Herman Miller and Design Within Reach.
What owners liked about it is intact. The solid bamboo is a genuinely better surface than the laminate its rivals ship at this price, the travel is described as quiet with little wobble, and the design has been around long enough that its legs turn up in DIY conversions of other desks. The 51-inch ceiling also puts it in the small group that suits genuinely tall users.
What is not intact is everything around it. The configurator is gone, the warranty now trails competitors at half the price, and the shutdown followed a period of owners reporting damaged products arriving. It remains a good desk bought for the top and the frame rather than for the company behind it.
What owners like
- Owners describe the raising and lowering as quiet and report not noticing much wobble, which is a better verdict than most two-leg desks get
- The solid bamboo is the surface people single out — a real material rather than laminate at a price where laminate is normal
- A long service history means the legs and motors turn up in DIY conversions: owners have used Jarvis legs to make a mid-century desk sit-stand
- 51 inches at the top makes it one of the few desks tall users can genuinely stand at
- Owners of the pre-shutdown desks describe them exceeding expectations out of the box
Common complaints
- Fully is gone — the company shut down and the desk now survives only in bamboo and laminate through Herman Miller and Design Within Reach, so the configurator people remember no longer exists
- There is a well-known period of owners reporting broken products arriving, which coloured the brand's late reputation
- A 72-inch bamboo top on two legs still prompts owners to ask whether it will be too wobbly for a tall user — and the answers are mixed
- Seven years is short against the fifteen and twenty-year warranties the mid-market now offers
- Cable management is an add-on even at $1,345
Questions owners ask
Can you still buy a Jarvis?
Is a 72-inch bamboo Jarvis too wobbly for a tall user?
Bamboo or laminate?
Is the seven-year warranty a problem?
Herman Miller Jarvis Bamboo, head-to-head
Desks people look at alongside it
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Herman Miller Jarvis Laminate
The laminate Jarvis is the cheaper of the two configurations that survived, and it is the more interesting one for fit, because Herman Miller sells it on three frames. The three-stage frame runs 25.6 to 51.1 inches with the 1-inch top; the two-stage frame starts at 30 inches, the height of an ordinary fixed desk, for $100 less; and a 3 Stage Low frame drops to 23 inches for shorter users at the cost of a 43.4-inch ceiling. That is a real choice at the point of order, and one people get wrong: pick the frame by the shortest and the tallest person who will use the desk, not by the price. The laminate comes in six finishes, a powered grommet with a socket and USB is a $50 option, and the mechanicals are identical to the bamboo model.
Fits 5′4″ to 6′10″ (est.)
Best for: A desk whose frame can be matched to its users, including the low frame for shorter ones.
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Herman Miller Nevi Sit-to-Stand
The Nevi is Herman Miller's own sit-to-stand table rather than an acquired one, and it is built for the contract market — specified by the hundred for offices, with a twelve-year warranty on the surface and the structure. The extended-range frame reaches 22.5 inches at the bottom, which puts it among the lowest desks here, and 48.5 at the top. The plain frame does not: it starts at 28.5 inches, the height of an ordinary fixed desk, and that is the version quoted in a lot of listings. Getting that distinction right is the whole buying decision. Square legs, a four-position memory switch and a laminate square-edge top make it deliberately unremarkable to look at, which is the point in an office of fifty. For a home buyer the friction is the size range: Herman Miller's own store sells only a 46×23 and a 58×29, the 48 to 72-inch contract sizes go through dealers, and the five-year electronics cover trails the frame by seven.
Fits 4′8″ to 6′6″ (est.)
Best for: An office fit-out, or a home buyer who wants a contract-grade desk in one of the two sizes Herman Miller sells direct.
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MotionGrey
MotionGrey Motion Series
MotionGrey is a Canadian desk brand, in the same bracket as EFFYDESK and Progressive Desk at home. The Motion Series is its mainstream desk: three-stage legs that put the top at 25 to 50 inches, 220 lb, four presets, 1.5 inches per second and a published 45 dB, in three sizes, 47×24, 55×28 and 65×24. The specification is sound and unremarkable, and the warranty covers the whole desk, top and electronics included, for eight years, or ten under a promotion. Price is the catch: MotionGrey's store charges US buyers $1,315 for the 55×28 desk, more than double the C$612.49 it asks in Canada, which turns a mid-budget desk into an expensive one for anyone ordering from the US.
Fits 5′3″ to 6′9″ (est.)
Best for: A buyer in Canada who wants a three-stage desk from a domestic brand; from the US it costs more than double.
Full spec sheet