May 2020 - When faced with the choice between paying $1400 for a studio desk or $800 for woodworking tools, I surprised nobody. Two months taking a stack of old filthy pine boards from the shed and some other scraps lying around and turning it into a useable desk. I have no idea what I'm doing.
Old and busted. This desk served me well for over a decade, but the particle board space is cluttered, has no useable desk space, and is way too small for the empty wall it sits against. I can do better.
The design. How hard can it be?
From humble beginnings - these filthy old boards were taking up space in my shed for years.
This is basically the exact same setup as the pros use. And every bit as safe. Probably.
Taking the boards across the jointer cleans up one face and straightens the edges. Or it would, if I had any idea how to do it.
Planing the boards down to flat and an even thickness. Also making lots of noise. My neighbors love me.
Planer putting in work.
The result after a few weekends of milling. Some useable boards.
Test fitting some pieces that will become my desktop. This may actually work? Question mark because surprise?
Dumbbells. A woodworking must-have.
Starting to piece together the base cabinets.
Some scrap MDF for the side panels. These cabinets serve as the base and storage.
Test fitting the tops onto the bases. Holy crap that kinda looks like the thing I was trying to make.
After all the time spent milling the lumber, I fell for all the natural colors in the boards. So instead of staining it, I decided to just apply a few coats of polyurethane.
Makeshift drying rack.
Dumbbells - for when you need a second set of hands but do everything by yourself.
The desk was about an inch lower than intended, so I made some pedestal feet out of scrap ply pieces. Router tables are rad.
Assembled!
At this point, I was running low on scrap materials for the keyboard tray. So I glued together various pieces of plywood for the surface and cobbled together a frame out of smaller 1x2’s. Using material I had laying around had become a principled thing by this point.
Applying black stain to the tray and cabinets.
Security cam captured the moment I went down with the ship. Trying to stand up the enormous solid wood desk on my own, instead I toppled forward and busted my eyebrow on the edge of the desk. Earned a pretty badass scar in the process. Ouch.
Staring in disbelief for several minutes after finding the drawer with slides fits.
Rolled into place. Sweet Moses it's gonna work!
More scrap material creations - slices of PVC pipe make great cable management.
It wouldn't be a project of mine without rgb smart lighting.
Some leftover pine and pipe to make a matching headphone stand.
Tadaaaaa
Back at the router table, using some of the last boards to make cabinet doors.
Cabinet doors completed with hinges, knobs, and some black speaker cloth hot-glued to the inside.
Fin.