Choose desk privacy screens that fit shared workstations. Check sightlines, brackets, monitor arms and cables, then compare Arc, Shelter, Parallel and Hitch.
Somebody else sits here tomorrow. Choose a screen that gives people useful privacy and still leaves the desk adjustable, accessible and easy to use.
Before ordering desk screens, look under a few desks. The cable tray, support rail and monitor-arm clamp usually have strong opinions about where new hardware can go.
Then sit down. A screen that looks generous from across the office may leave the distracting sightline wide open. A taller one may fix that and then pick a fight with the monitor, a conversation or the next person's setup.
Shared desks are a Goldilocks situation: someone's been sitting in this chair, and they left the monitor arm at a very creative angle. Start with the view you want to change, the room you have for mounting and the adjustments different people need. Once those play nicely together, pick the finish.
Check the desk from the user's side, then from the aisle around it. Pin down what's distracting before you choose the screen's shape.
A side panel may help when movement comes from a neighboring workstation or a busy walkway. A rear panel can separate facing desks. A wrap can provide coverage on several sides, while a corner screen leaves more of the workstation open.
Check both views: what distracts the person at the desk, and what someone nearby can see of their work. They aren't always the same. A divider beside the monitor may hide movement at the edge of someone's vision and still leave the display on full view for whoever is standing behind the chair.
A desk divider isn't a monitor privacy filter. If you need to protect information on the monitor, consider its position and your organization's information-security requirements. A taller furniture panel isn't an automatic fix.
Desk width alone tells you very little about compatibility. Two desks with identical dimensions can turn out to be fraternal twins underneath, with different edges, supports and cable hardware.
Use this worksheet for each desk type. Photograph the top, edge and underside, and keep the desk model information if you have it.
| Check | Record | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Worksurface width and depth | Actual usable dimensions, including curved corners or cutouts | The size on the label may not describe the edge you'll attach to. |
| Thickness and edge shape | Thickness at each mounting point; bevels or unusual profiles | The clamp has to fit both the thickness and shape of the edge. |
| Clear mounting space | Clear space above and below each bracket location | Rails, drawers and trays can occupy the same space as the clamp. |
| Monitor arms | Clamp location and the arm's full movement | Leave room for the monitor to adjust to the next person's setup. |
| Cables and power | Grommets, outlets, dock position and cable route | Users still need to plug in without dismantling the workstation. |
| Desk adjustment | Minimum and maximum positions; nearby fixed objects | Check where the screen ends up at different desk heights relative to nearby furniture. |
| Adjacent desks | Gap, alignment and whether they adjust independently | Shared edges can become collision points as workstations move. |
Measure the awkward desk, too. If your sample includes only the clean rectangular workstation with nothing underneath, you're testing the golden child of the family.
These Loftwall options attach in different ways. Use this comparison to narrow your list, then check the exact model against the current product documents.
| Option | Coverage and mounting approach | Check before you order |
|---|---|---|
| Arc | Curved Wrap models surround the rear and sides; Corner models provide left- or right-hand coverage. Embedded brackets support the panels. | Check the model's width and depth against your desk, including the required bracket clearance and recommended cable gap. |
| Shelter | Separate side and back panels attach with clamps. Available panel materials include PET and acrylic. | The published maximum worksurface thickness is 1.5 inches. Hardware extends 2.25 inches below the surface, so check the underside. |
| Parallel | PET panels use embedded magnets and dedicated brackets. Side-to-side and modesty configurations provide different coverage. | Confirm the bracket arrangement, actual height above the desk and room for repositioning. Published bracket compatibility is up to 1.5-inch-thick worksurfaces. |
| Hitch | A framed retrofit system with Single and Double configurations for specified desk and table arrangements. | Match the exact desk height and depth to the selected model. Single Hitch's published desk-height range is 27.5 to 29.5 inches. |
Material changes what the screen does. Clear acrylic keeps the view open; opaque PET screens the view and absorbs sound. Pick the material for the job you need done.
“Twenty-three inches high” can mean the entire panel, including the part below the desktop. It doesn't necessarily mean 23 inches of screening above your keyboard. Read the fine print like it's a rental car agreement.
For example, the current Arc cut sheet lists 23 inches overall: 17.5 inches above the desktop and 5.5 inches below. Allow for its recommended one-inch gap from the desk edge when checking fit.
Parallel's modesty panels illustrate another naming trap. They extend below the worksurface, but the cut sheet also shows above-desktop coverage. Read the drawing before deciding that “modesty” means only under-desk privacy.
Check the view with the people who will use the desks, both sitting and standing. A screen that moves with a height-adjustable desk stays in the same position relative to that desktop, while the person next door may be at a completely different height. Photograph those combinations with permission and without sensitive information on the screens.
Try one setup before ordering for the whole floor. First, confirm that the screen and its mounting support any desk-height adjustment you'll test. Then ask several people who will use the desks to set up the chair, monitor and compatible desk the way they normally would, and run through these tasks:
Don't fix a fit problem by forcing the monitor into a bad position. OSHA's workstation guidance recommends considering the monitor together with the desk, chair and keyboard, with enough space to view the screen comfortably. The privacy addition has to work with those adjustments.
Decide who can move or remove the screen. Being able to reconfigure it during an office reset doesn't necessarily mean it should come on and off every day like a Lego set. Follow the assembly instructions and agree on a shared-desk reset people will stick to.
A desk screen can give people a visual boundary, but it doesn't create an enclosed call space. Speech can still travel over and around an open panel, even if its material absorbs sound. If long video calls, competing conversations or sensitive spoken information are the problem, put a suitable separate setting in the plan.
You may need to change the layout if the coverage you want blocks access to equipment, limits adjustments or makes working together awkward. A mix of open and more screened shared desks can give people a choice, as long as those options suit the work.
Our Arc story explains why desk boundaries matter. This is the less glamorous sequel: checking those boundaries against your real furniture.
Send us a desk photo and measurements, including the underside. Tell us which view you want to change and whether users sit, stand or share the workstation. That is a much better starting point than “We need twenty of the blue ones.”
Plan your space
Bring your questions and your floor plan.
Back to Blog | Browse Products | Contact Loftwall