The Grovemade Studio Pad is one beautiful desk pad, with more functionality than just about any other desk pad available. However, it hasn't been a slam dunk for me.

Every desk accessory that comes out of Grovemade’s Portland design shop rockets to the top of my list. The Grovemade Desk, for instance, is the most tantalizing office product I can think of right now, as is Grovemade’s new rolling cart. But the product that started it all off was the Studio Pad. And being it’s the most affordable on the wishlist, it’s the first to hit my desk.

TL;DR: Grovemade's Studio Pad is the best-built desk pad you can buy and the least accommodating. The aluminum chassis and full-length walnut tray lock your layout in place, which makes it a bad partner for a laptop riser or desk shelf — including Grovemade's own. It works best on a simple, single-machine desk. At $200 USD it's roughly ten dollars a year across a working career, which is the only math that makes it defensible.

Grovemade’s Studio Pad is an interesting lesson in form, function, and aesthetic. Something in this category can’t objectively be at the top of any list, but it will surely be at the top of many subjective lists. The combination of warm walnut, usable storage tray, and functional cable passthroughs make for a wonderful desk accessory. It’s this beautiful combination that puts it ahead of your standard felt or matte desk mat — if you opt for the Studio Pad, you’re looking for a show-stopping piece, not a destroyable desk pad.

However, I’ve run into a few issues — not in terms of build or design, but rather how something like the Studio Pad can fit alongside other desk systems and setups.

I have never been so lukewarm on a product. I want to use it all the time and have it be a cornerstone piece on my desk. Yet, no matter how often I try, the Studio Pad’s lack of flexibility has this desk pad sitting in storage as much as it is sitting on my desk.

Here’s why.

Design, Build, and Materials

Like every Grovemade product I’ve tried, the Studio Pad is built to the highest degree of quality. This desk pad is heavy — when the box arrives, you’ll be surprised to find only the Studio Pad inside and not the entire Grovemade desk setup itself.

There isn't much space below the walnut try, so thick cables won't fit through the cable channel as well as you might like. It's designed for charging cables like the MacBook Pro cable.

Core to this is the Studio Pad’s actual design. This isn’t a roll-up style desk pad. The long walnut tray ensures the Studio Pad has a sturdy build, as does the underlying aluminum chassis, which provides space for propping up small tablets or your phone.

The Studio Pad’s weight and build make it ideal for some situations, and less than ideal for others.

For one, the Studio Pad is easy to write on. I have the matte finish Studio Pad, which does a good job handling fingerprints and coffee cup rings, and provides a sturdy writing surface that has worked well for fountain pens, roller balls, and ballpoint pens alike. The matte surface also doubles as a mouse pad, providing a minor amount of friction between the mouse and the surface below.

On the flip side, the bigger build means the Studio Pad is less flexible. You will not be moving this around much on your desk — once it’s in place, it ideally stays in place. The pad is also surprisingly thick. If you are desk-height sensitive (my home office desk is a thick piece of fir, making all desk shelves and monitors slightly higher than they would be on your run-of-the-mill office desk), the Studio Pad could push up your keyboard and display slightly higher than your ergonomic preferences may allow.

I found it difficult to capture in a photograph, but you can see the multi-layered design above.

Between the aluminum chassis and top matte finish is a Grovemade-signature cork sheet. Cork doesn’t age well — I’m not convinced the Grovemade desk shelf’s cork legs will outlast any of Balolo or Ugmonk’s desk shelf leg options, but cork works great in a desk pad. It’s soft, shock resistant (there’s a big difference between writing on this and even a hardwood desk), and most importantly, quiet. Cork dampens taps or bumps or keyboard strokes, perfect for Teams or Meet calls.

And, of course, there’s the walnut tray. Grovemade’s walnut selection is on the slight warmer side of the spectrum relative to a few other walnut options I’ve seen, though it’s my favourite walnut colour. It’s concave enough to rest a few pens side by side, but it’s not so deep as to fully hold a set of AirPods Pro. You can certainly rest the AirPods case in the tray, but one side will sit on top of the tray’s edge.

Overall, the Grovemade Studio Pad is built to Grovemade’s spec, which is to say well, durably, soundly, and with attention to detail and care. The Studio Pad is more — just “more”, in every sense of the word — than any other desk pad you’ve seen.

Use Cases

Now this is where things get interesting, in the sense that while things don’t fall apart for me, more complexity is certainly introduced. The Studio Pad isn’t a slam dunk for every desk setup, no matter how much you want it to be.

Why? That thick, durable, inflexible aluminum chassis is why.

You see, that tray running along the top of the Studio Pad isn’t going anywhere or flexing for any situation. Neither is the vertical lip acting as a resting spot for your phone, tablet, or notebook. This inflexibility hits hardest if you’re using the Studio Pad with an external display and a laptop stand off to the side. Even Grovemade’s own Desk Shelf and Laptop Riser succumb to the Studio Pad — because of the aluminum lip, you can’t pull the laptop even with your external display, making a seamless viewing angle from external to laptop display. Grovemade’s Laptop Riser in particular has to be pushed way back, making text on your laptop display either ridiculously small from a distance or requiring resolution adjustments so you can see.

The tray provides a nice spot to prop up small tablets or an iPhone. The phone does rest at a particularly steep angle.

The same inflexibilities hit the cable passthrough channels as well. Because everything is in one spot, you have to ensure you have enough cable length (or use L-shaped cables, like this one) to do a 90-degree turn from the top of your keyboard to run through the channel. Otherwise, the cable will have to rest on top of the Studio Pad’s vertical lip — an otherwise imperfect solution.

You’re also not going to be able to use any top-of-keyboard accessories, such as Ugmonk’s Gather setup which includes a MagSafe adapter, pen tray, and storage box. The Studio Pad has its tray for this, of course, but I don’t always like the look of pens and highlighters strewn across the Studio Pad’s tray. It appears messy occasionally.

If you use the Studio Pad with no desk shelf or laptop riser, I feel you have an incomplete setup. The Studio Pad is best used as part of a bigger desk system. What’s odd is that I don’t think it works best with Grovemade’s own desk accessory system.

  • When used alongside the Grovemade system, the inflexibility of the Studio Pad and inflexibility of the Laptop Riser pushes the Riser far, far back and away from the user. The Laptop Riser also doesn’t rotate, so a Desk Shelf, Laptop Riser, and Studio Pad combination is effectively unusable.
  • When used alongside the Ugmonk Gather system (which is no longer for sale), the Studio Pad starts to shine. The Gather Laptop Stand rotates, allowing you to line the square base against the backside of the Studio Pad and turn the display towards you. The fact you can magnetize other small Gather accessories to the Desk Shelf means the Studio Pad’s walnut tray adds even more desk storage for small trinkets.
  • When used alongside the Balolo Setup Cockpit system, the Studio Pad’s best features are brought out. The Balolo Laptop Riser connects to the Desk Shelf and hovers over top the Studio Pad, allowing for maximum flexibility. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think the Studio Pad was made by Balolo for the Balolo Setup Cockpit system, not Grovemade for the Grovemade desk system.

I find it somewhat comedic that the best system for the Studio Pad is actually Balolo’s competing desk system. You can surely use the Studio Pad in just about any environment, but it’s Balolo’s system that stands out in terms of compatibility.

Pricing

A quick word on the Grovemade Studio Pad’s pricing: It’s made by Grovemade, so the Studio Pad is expensive. Everything from Grovemade is expensive. When compared to other desk mats, the Studio Pad will always be at the top of the price list. $240 USD for a desk mat is a lot of money.

Of course, I’d argue the Studio Pad isn’t in the same arena as other desk mats. The Studio Pad offers far more — far more durability, stability, utility, and, frankly, beauty. No desk mat comes close in any measurable way to the Studio Pad, so why then should their prices be compared?

Like any Grovemade product, a Studio Pad purchase is a lifetime purchase. At $240 USD, it’ll hurt the pocket, but it’ll last your entire working career and never look improper in the process.

(Please note that I actually purchased this item myself. Sometimes items are sent for review, which makes this pricing section difficult to write. This time around, I spent my own money.)

Wrap Up

Grovemade’s Studio Pad should be chalked up as an impulsive purchase on my end. It’s been a positive experience, don’t get me wrong. But it was impulsive, nonetheless.

At the time, I envisioned the Studio Pad in front of Grovemade’s Desk Shelf and Laptop Riser, completing the Grovemade trifecta on my desk. It took about 30 seconds to realize my error. The hefty, sturdy Studio Pad pushed the Laptop Riser further to the back of my desk than I’d like, requiring a resolution change on the MacBook Pro so I could read the text from that distance.

From there, I’ve tried the Studio Pad in just about any array you can think of: With an Ugmonk Gather setup, with a Balolo setup, on its own, and with just a Grovemade Laptop Riser. The Studio Pad is beautiful and has a valuable utility, it’s just difficult to dial in if you’re used to things working a particular way.

I think the Studio Pad is one of those desk accessories which creeps its way to the top of the “G.A.S.” list (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) relatively easily, but likely doesn’t fit as many people as it may appear. You have to have a particular setup — perhaps just a laptop, or perhaps just a desktop computer, with little to no additional desk storage offered in other systems. The Studio Pad certainly can work with other desk systems. It’s just more difficult to implement than I expected.

Grovemade’s quality continues to be unmatched. Rarely does any product come with the Grovemade fit and finish. If you think the Studio Pad could fit on your desk, and the price could fit in your budget, it’s certain to last a long, long time and look beautiful in the process.