Why I Loved KraftGeek Easel: Full Review of Inspire™ Plein Air Easel

Last Updated on April 16, 2026 by Masha Eretnova

To be honest with you, when Kraft Greek team reached out, I thought it was too good to be true.

SO many brands tried and made a compact easel and failed (badly), and I wasn’t even thinking it is possible to have a reliable travel easel in my situation, when I change places like a nomad every few months.

But I was curious. This easel looked like a cool tech easel, nothing like Ive seen in art stores before. So I agreed to give it a “test drive”.

Gladly, it was just the perfect timing – I was on my way to Buenos Aires, Argentina, so I get to test how travel friendly it is and how I can set it up in apartments and small spaces that are not MY home studio.

TL; DR – What’s KraftGeek Easel Is About

• Lightweight and carry-on friendly size.
• It is stable and not tipping over or get blown away by the wind.
• Best works with canvases or paper set up on boards sizes from 15.75-25.6” / 40-65cm
• Has a hook for your supplies/bag (up to 11 lbs/5 kg!!) so you don’t need a table or leaving things on the ground and then bend down every time.
• As my reader you get 15% discount using the code STUDIOANYWHERE
• Has two modes: tabletop or full standing, with height adjustable up to 58 in/147 cm – perfect for my height (158 cm, 5’2)
• It works at home, in class, and outdoors!

Reviewing Kraft Geeek Plein Air Easel

Appearance: It Looks Stunning!

This easel looks AMAZING!

It is modern, slick, like a cool tool and not like something from a century ago (although large wooden easels for permanent studios are charming, too).

You can pick one of 4 colors: white, oak, walnut, and black. I picked Oak color but I think Walnut looks absolutely gorgeous and premium, too.

The adjustable legs and moving parts are silver for white and oak models and black for black and walnut designs – perfectly matching the whole aestethic. Nothing looks cheap, gets dirty easily, or peels off.

What’s also important is as it is made for you and me, our small house studios (besides plein air), the easel actually looks good in the interior folded. It doesn’t take much space either.

FULL VIDEO REVIEW

If you want to see me set it up and use it, here is the video:

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Real Weight & Size

In my mind 1.7 kg was lighter somehow, so I was surprised how heavy the easel felt.

I rushed to check it with my travel scale, and discovered that it was indeed 1,75 kg (X lb).

So it will still keep your travel light but just keep in mind that it is almost two kilos and it doesn’t fell very light.

However, regular easels weight even more so I have nothing to complain about. But it is a fair warning.

Use

To be honest, I am not a big plein air person, so I was intending to use it at home, especially because it can adjust the height and you can set it up on the table or on the floor.

It is best for medium size canvases, canvas pads, and paper (on thicker pads).

I love that there is a hook, but I would probably prefer a small flat shelf there!

Stability was another pleasant surprise.

No, it is not a giant H-frame studio easel, and I do not think anyone should buy it expecting that kind of immovable presence.

But for its size and weight, it is impressively stable. That is one of the most repeated themes in public reviews too.

People keep saying some version of the same thing: lighter than traditional wooden travel easels, but sturdier than expected.

That said, I also saw a few very believable caveats. Some users say you have to tighten the legs properly or they can slip, and it makes sense, I also didn’t spot the lock feature from the start and one of the legs folded back.

How to Set it Up

Honestly, super easy and very intuitive.

You pull the sides out, pull the anchor, extend the legs, twist and lock. That is basically it.

All moving points have an options to lock it, so nothing will come out or twist and catch you by surprise ruining your work.

When using a canvas, you can secure it with a hook on top as well, it gives you enough freedom to work on the flat surface and you can still easily cover the top edge if you want.

What I personally liked most is that it works both as a tabletop easel and as a standing easel.

That is huge for me because, again, I am not out in nature every weekend painting lakes. I am much more likely to paint in a rental apartment, on a balcony, near a couch, on a dining table, or in some corner that I am trying to turn into a small temporary studio.

In tabletop mode it makes a lot of sense. In standing mode it also works well, especially if you are not super tall.

Public listings are messy on exact full height, with numbers ranging from 58 inches / 147 cm in headline copy to 64–65 inches / 162–165 cm in the detailed specs and retailer pages, but in real life the important thing is simple: it goes high enough to be genuinely useful, and it gives you flexibility that a plain tabletop easel does not.

Paper is where I think people need to be realistic.

If you are using smaller paper pads, especially vertical ones, this is not automatically the perfect answer. That came up in my own testing too. Horizontal paper can work better. Small paper on a properly sized board can work. Clips can help. But if your whole plan is very small loose sheets with no backing, then no, I do not think this is the easel’s strongest use.

Other Important Details

Shipping is very speedy so you can take what brand says seriously. I had no issues with shipping process even though I asked them to deliver it to my PO box.

Click To See Inspite Plein Air Easel In Store

The Elephant – The Price

I can hear your saying – it is all great Masha, but on Amazon I can buy an easel for 6 bucks! This one is over 100 USD!

Yes, it isn’t cheap. If you’re just starting painting and you’re not sure whether you even going to continue, it is common sense that you DO NOT need to invest in expensive supplies, and you may not buy any easel at all – that’s how I started.

And here is an art piece I made during the video using Golden acrylics.

But I also think it is a mistake to compare this only to the cheapest easels on the internet.

You are paying for compactness, portability, a cleaner design, quick setup, decent stability, and the fact that it actually fits modern small-space life.

You are also paying for not having to keep improvising. That changes the math. A fellow artist in Argentina even asked me to bring an extra one back because for that kind of money there was simply nothing comparable there in terms of quality and function.

That really stayed with me. Convenience for artists who travel between cities or countries is not a silly little luxury. It affects whether you paint at all.

Verdict: KraftGeek Easel Is For Real Life Artists!

And that is probably my biggest compliment to this easel: it fits real life.

It fits the life where you do not have a proper studio in every city. It fits apartments. It fits temporary setups. It fits artists who work medium-size rather than huge.

It fits people who want one easel that can go from table to floor without drama. It even fits people who care that their tools look good and do not make their room feel like a storage closet.

Would I recommend it to everyone? No.

I would not recommend it as your answer for very large canvases. I would not recommend it if you mainly work on tiny loose paper and do not want to bother with a board or clips.

I would not recommend it if your only goal is to spend as little as possible. And if you are very tall or very rough with your gear, you may want to think a bit harder about whether this exact format is your best match.

But if you are like me — you travel, you move around, you paint in small spaces, and you want something that feels modern, compact, and actually enjoyable to use — then yes, I think this is a very solid option.

I started this review skeptical. I expected another over-designed “portable” thing that would look better than it worked. Instead, I got an easel that mostly did exactly what I needed it to do and did not get in the way of making art. That alone wins a lot of points with me.

So my final feeling is pretty simple: not perfect, not cheap, but genuinely smart and genuinely useful.

And if you do end up getting it, and if the code is still active, my reader code is STUDIOANYWHERE for 15% off.