Office desk
Finished office desk
A sturdy, roomy, ergonomic and beautiful desk is critical for anyone working from home for extended periods. For me, such a time was during the 2020 lock-down (due to the Covid19 pandemic). Like most of my projects, the design is largely based on materials that I had in the shop.
Key steps in the construction of the desk include:
- Select drawer hardware early in the project ! Depth and design of cabinets must be driven by the length of the drawer slides (I learned the hard way)
- Construct cabinet frames using 1″ x 2″. I chose this size to minimize weight.
- Construct drawers using plywood.
- Construct the table top. My design allows for height adjustments to fit the user.
- Add plywood boards to the cabinet, 1/4″ or 3/8″ for the sides; 1/2″ for the drawer fronts; and and 1/8″ for the back
- Sand outdoor (or in a well-ventilated workspace), stain, and apply 2 or more coats of clear polyurethane. It’s important to have good dust collection and respiratory PPE.
File cabinet frames and the table top
Dry-run of desk assembly. The middle section is fastened to the file cabinets using 1/4″-20 fasteners
All drawers fitted.
Here I was fitting the drawer faces whilst ensuring that the wood grain is continuous across drawer faces.
Sanding outdoor.