A year ago I built a custom desk. I've wanted to do this for a really long time, almost a decade. Back in the day I read Ikea hack websites where people did really cool stuff. That has always been my idea until a year ago when I watched videos on people building custom desks out of better material than particleboard. I got a solid wood countertop (ironically from Ikea lol), stained and finished it and bought a pricey motorized sit-stand frame to put it on. Built some stands for my monitors and speakers, and recently I built a pullout tray for my MIDI keyboard which freed up a ton of space on the desktop. Has undermounted smart LED strip because obviously you need that in a desk. All in all it has exceeded my wildest expectations of what I could accomplish with a custom desk build.
Old desk that I used for a decade. Cheap and okay, and the dual tiers are nice, but problematic for holding large MIDI controller.
The beast: