Fully Jarvis Bamboo Desk Drawer Review

[Editors’ Note – April 21, 2023 – MillerKnoll, the $3B parent company of Fully.com, officially shut the company down on April 20th, 2023, after an 18-year run. Indeed, Fully’s phone lines and chat function have already been disabled, and the only way to reach customer service for product support is via email. We first reported this on March 8th after being notified by a number of Fully’s suppliers that the company was discontinuing operations.

Founded by ergonomics industry pioneer David Kahl in 2006, the company – which was originally known as ErgoDepot before a rebranding a few years ago – was acquired by Knoll. Knoll itself was shortly thereafter acquired by Herman Miller. This cataclysmic event is the latest in an ongoing set of challenges the industry has endured since the pandemic.

As a consequence of the company being wound down, we have taken down the scores for all of the Fully products we’ve reviewed to 0.5-star (including the Jarvis Standing Desk, Jarvis Standing L-Desk, Fully Jarvis Reclaimed Wood Standing Desk, Fully Jarvis Albright Standing Desk, Fully Jarvis Evolve Standing Desk, Fully Remi Standing Desk, Fully Jarvis Whiteboard Adjustable-Height Conference Table, Fully Jarvis Bamboo Adjustable-Height Conference Table, Fully Jarvis Tabletops For Standing Desks, Jarvis Monitor Riser, Jarvis Bamboo Desk Drawer, Fully Jarvis Single Monitor Arm, Fully Jarvis Dual Monitor Arm, Fully Jax Single-Display Monitor Arm, Fully Floatdeck Balance Board, Fully Sidekick Mobile File Cabinet, Fully Cable Management Kit and Fully Cable Management Tray). Fully has sadly been added to the Office Fitness Industry Dead Pool.

Ostensibly, Fully’s, “most popular products,” i.e. those that they still have a lot of inventory remaining, are being offered through the Herman Miller and Design Within Reach websites. We checked these listings and they are at full list price, unlikely to be purchased by any savvy shoppers. The nearest alternatives to Fully products are going to be found at iMovR (American-made) and UpLiftDesk (similar Chinese-made products). For more details on the company’s closure, see our article on Is Fully.com Out Of Business?]

For all the great things about switching to a standing desk, losing your drawer space is a common drawback. But there are options. Be sure to check out our full roundup of standing desk storage options (including add-on drawers, standing desks with built-in drawers, and mobile file pedestals) to see why standing desks don’t usually come with drawers and what the best options might be for your workstation.

The Jarvis Bamboo Desk Drawer has a solid amount of space among add-on drawers with exterior dimensions of 14.25″ x 13″ x 4.5″, which should allow it to fit some larger items. This is also a more attractive drawer than your typical add-on drawer featuring plastic and metal construction (like Fully’s standard desk drawer).

It can hold up to 16 lbs, which should be enough for a laptop and associated accessories like a power adapter, mouse, etc., but it content weight can add up faster than you might expect so you’ll want to pay attention to the weight limit if you’re packing the drawer full.

Corners Have Been Cut

To keep the price of this drawer lower, Fully cut some elements that could have drastically improved the drawer. Instead of a hardware pull on the drawer, or even a pull cutout like on the UpLift Bamboo Desk Drawer, the drawer is simply shorter than the surrounding box. You grab the top edge of the drawer face to pull it out. Beyond just looking kind of odd and not having the smoothest action, this leaves a long gap and an unattractive view into the contents of your drawer. If the goal of a drawer is to remove clutter from view, this works back against it.

Having the drawer be much shorter than the surrounding box effectively reduces the storage ability because you can’t stack items higher than the top edges of the drawer.

This drawer also comes without slides. This means every time you pull the drawer in or out, the bamboo of the drawer scrapes along the bamboo of the surrounding box, with only a piece of felt separating the two (though the felt likely won’t stick for long if you use the drawer often). This gives the entire drawer a very cheap feel.

Another effect of not using slides is poor drawer support. The front of this drawer droops substantially when you pull it out past halfway.

About the Bamboo

Fully is not subtle about touting the environmental positives of bamboo on the product page for this drawer. Unfortunately, Fully is famous for greenwashing their marketing descriptions when it comes to bamboo, which is a lot more environmentally harmful than they portray it using selective information.

Check out our full primer on Separating Truth From Fiction When It Comes to Bamboo Standing Desks for all the details on how Chinese monoculture farmers convert bamboo grass into a wood panel product using a lot more energy, water and chemicals than you might have imagined.

For those Jarvis owners hoping to add a drawer that matches their bamboo desktop, they should know this isn’t quite the same material. The bamboo drawer is much cheaper to make with straight edges than the bamboo desktop that has contoured edges, so it looks like they took the cheap router with this design.

Assembly

There’s no template for where to drill holes, so you have to hold the drawer up on the bottom of your desktop, position it exactly where you want it, mark the holes, then pre-drill them. Check out the full assembly instructions from Fully to see all of the steps.

If the drawer is going on a new desk, or you don’t mind taking everything off your desk, the process would be easier with the desk flipped over. Whether you flip the desk over or not, we always recommend using a drill bit with a depth-setting collar to make sure you don’t drill through your desktop.

Measure, Measure, Measure

We heartily recommend getting a tape measure out and actually seeing how the drawer will work on your specific desk before purchasing. There are too many desk models with too many different configurations of crossbars, power units, etc.

Even if the drawer fits, it’s helpful to see how it will change your desk space. Will it hang down too low and bump your knees? Will it affect your ability to rotate or retract your keyboard tray?

The Takeaway

Between the odd open gap along the entire drawer face and the lack of drawer slides, the Jarvis Bamboo Desk Drawer is a disappointing effort that doesn’t have as much functionality as it should. The dimensions seem fairly generous but much of that is negated by the short drawer.

It does carry Fully’s 15-year warranty and the bamboo looks much better than the typical plastic or metal of many add-on drawers, but don’t fall into the trap of thinking you’re helping the environment by picking it.

Don’t Stop Here

Standing desk storage is an excellent place to start but it’s best to think of your ergonomic setup as a work in progress. There are always ways to improve. Check our in-depth reviews on standing desks, keyboard trays, monitor arms, ergonomic seating, cable management and standing mats.

Frequently bought with standing desk storage