Description
The LAGKAPTEN is IKEA’s current ‘create your own’ desk top, it can fix to the Alex drawers and also Ikea legs. As with all honeycomb paper core tops, it can’t resist a monitor arm clamp, or hold a screw properly. And as with all fibreboard shells, it can’t give you real grain or that satisfying solid wood feeling. That’s where we come in.
Our Lagkapten & Alex compatible solid wood desk top can be made to any size, including the Lagkapten sizes ( 1200mm, 1400mm, 1600mm and 2000mm x 600mm deep) and pre-drilled to drop straight onto two IKEA Alex drawer units or standard IKEA legs (ADILS, OLOV and similar). Everything lines up. You just need to lift off the Lagkapten top, swap it for ours, and fix it down.
Why upgrade from Lagkapten?
The Lagkapten top is honest about what it is: a honeycomb paper core inside a fibreboard shell, finished in painted laminate. IKEA says the maximum load is 50kg distributed, and specifically warns it is not suitable for monitor arm installation.
A solid oak, pine or walnut top from us is a single material all the way through (full stave). A Solid Wood Top is denser, heavier and more rigid than a Lagkapten at any size. Monitor arms clamp to oak and walnut tops without concern. Screws grip. And the grain is real, which means no two tops look identical and no laminate peeling at the edges two minutes/years from now.
Lagkapten & Alex, or Karlby & Alex?
The Lagkapten is the newer, slimmer cousin of the Karlby. Where the Karlby was a veneered kitchen worktop (around 38mm deep, roughly 39kg), the Lagkapten is a purpose-made desk top that’s lighter and thinner. The Lagkapten / Alex combo is now the more popular of the two setups for office use.
Read more about the Lagkapten & Alex setup, including a full comparison between the Lagkapten and the Karlby, in our post here: Lagkapten & Alex – Using IKEA counter tops as desk tops.
Read more about the Karlby & Alex setup, including a full cost breakdown and a comparison with solid wood, in our Karlby & Alex review.
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