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wrtsprt
8 posts
and
3 followers
in about 6 years
in about 6 years
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Table top for my home office desk
I needed a new desk for my home office and I had a long standing peeve with the cable management of all the desks I had in my life before. That was the perfect setup for making a desk myself.
The main constraints I started out with were:
The main constraints I started out with were:
- cable management - main goal was easy access to power sockets for temporary plugging in devices as well as not having to crawl under the desk to add, remove or change any cables I needed
- clutter free desk: I didn't want a lot of cables running on the desk - as few as possible (pictures are still with the old laptop - now it's only one cable that's running up the the laptop itself)
- sit / stand desk setup (and I was definitely going to buy the base, and not build that myself)
After settling on the Jarvis frame (more lifting power than the IKEA one, good reviews from colleagues who were using it) - I started sketching what the desk could look like. I tried front, top and back perspectives to move around the different features until they made sense. The main features are three drawers in the front and two lids in the back opening up the dead space in the desk to be used for running the cables. The lids don't fit tightly so cables can be run into the desk all long their edges.
With my current setup (no real workshop, no jointer / planer) it was pretty clear that I was going to use sheet material rather than 'real' wood. I don't mind 'modern' look of the layers of the plywood and this gave me a big, flat surface very easily. I went with birch plywood for the top and the cheapest and lightest I could find (spruce) for the bottom sheet.
The rest of the process was straight forward, although it took several months (lot's of other stuff going on of course) to actually finish. Having to move the project in and out of the house (for cutting, glueing and finishing) make it really annoying, but worked in the end. I finished the surface with Osmo Hardwax Oil.
The main lessons learned are that:
- trying out a prototype was a good idea to get the rough dimensions right
- in the end I think the desk is a big too big, I could have gotten away with a bit less
- I should not have skimped on the rails for the drawers .. it mostly works, but installation was annoying and the quality isn't great - and of course I am never going to upgrade them
- it's really fun sitting at a desk that I made myself every single day
2 Comments
Very nice. Good job. I'm reviewing desks for a similar project I'm about to tackle; except, I'm having to add to some pre-existing built-in desks.
Mighty fine, you did a Good job.
-- Soli Deo gloria! ( To God alone be the Glory)
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