After painting and stenciling our office walls (check that out here), next up was to start to move some furniture back into the room and I wanted to start with my DIY Office Desk.
The original desk was not only less than beautiful to look at, but was way too deep for our double-duty office/guest bedroom. We needed something that would be nice and narrow, offering plenty of desk space for our computers but not overtaking the room. We decided to DIY one!
Making a DIY Office Desk out of Wood
The top of the desk was surprisingly uncomplicated. We bought basic wood from Home Depot – two pieces of the 9.5 inch deep pine – about $20 worth. Dan-the-man cut the pieces to size and then literally just glued them together with wood glue (and left them clamped over night to make sure they were bonded really well). And if you’re wondering about sanding, since the wood was really pretty smooth already and we knew we were going to be just using the surface for computers, we didn’t bother.
Making a DIY Office Desk out of Wood – stain it
Next step was to crack open my favourite stain. Yep you guessed it, minwax in dark walnut. Come to mama!
One coat of stain and three coats of varathane later, she was lookin’ pretty fine. We put 3 coats of varathane on just to make sure the top was going to be extra durable. Plus, it adds a really pretty glossy finish. The varathane is still wet in the picture below — hence the blueish tone.
Making a DIY Office Desk out of Wood – the install
Once the table top had cured out in the garage for a few days, we brought it in and just plunked it on top of our two new drawer units. We thought we might want to secure it all together somehow, but realized that it was actually really sturdy just the way it was. No wobble = fine with us (and makes dan a happy man).
To make the best use of space and since we had some leftover wood, the hubs customized things up a little. He built a little platform for our desktop monitor (which not only elevates the monitor but also means you can tuck the keyboard in) and little compartments for all of the u-u-ugly computer components. It really makes the whole thing look so much cleaner and organized. And y’all know my heart pitter patters for good storage solutions.
And here’s how she’s looking all put together…
Not only was this a fun project to do, it definitely didn’t hurt that we came in way under budget too.
The total cost would have been about $160 (for the drawer units, wood, stain, and painting supplies), but luckily we had an IKEA gift card for the drawers and we already owned the stain and supplies. So totally cost for us? About twenty dolla dolla bills.