Office Space- Built in Desk
Posted by Wayne
Now that I had the room drywalled it was time for the fun part. Rather than bore you with the details of the decorating (which were all my wife’s ideas, so I can’t take credit), I’ll skim those and get to the built in desk, which is really what the room was all about.
The first step after drywalling was to prime and paint the room. The ceiling was painted white, 2 walls off white, and 2 walls tan. For the carpet my wife picked out some large carpet tiles that I didn’t think much of at first but they have really grown on me. These carpet tiles have a thick rubber backing so they really don’t move if they go down on a concrete floor. I started in one corner and worked my way to the other, sticking the tiles down to the floor with a double sided tape. I think the key to making these tiles look really good is to get really tight seams, so I took my time positioning them and sticking them down. When I got to the edges, the carpet tiles were very easy to cut. I would make my measurements, flip them over, and then use a straight edge and utility knife to cut right through them.
I didn’t install the trim around the edges of the room until after I had finished the desk, but for that I bought some new pre-painted white trim and it only required a few angle cuts using a mitre box before pre drilling and applying the trim with finish nails. I have since purchased a small nail gun which should make future trim work go a lot faster.
The built in desk was something I had feared since the beginning of the project because I had no experience and didn’t really know how hard it would be, but I did know it would make or break the room (so whatever I did, it had better be good).
The requirements of the desk (as set forth by my wife) were that it be 30″ deep, 30″ off the ground, and it have filing cabinets underneath. We struggled with finding any filing cabinets that would fit the bill, and when we were about to give up and build the desk without filing cabinets we found the stainless steel shelves with wire mesh basket drawers pictured on the left and right of the desk below from the Container Store. We bought one of these for the left side of the desk and for the right side we bought a matching filing cabinet on rollers so my wife could keep her files. In the image below these have white shelves on top, but the one we bought did not have a top.
The plan was to have the shelves on the left be a permanent part of the built in desk and the filing cabinet could roll in and out when needed.
The room is about 6 feet wide so I bought two sheets of 4×8 particle board and stacked them on two sawhorses in my garage. I sketched out the approximate measurements on the top sheet (which would eventually be flipped over to become the bottom of the desk) and trimmed the sheets down to a little bigger than my approximate desk size just to make the heavy sheets more maneuverable.
The front of the desk (a part that I would be laminating) needed to be perfectly smooth (something I might not be able to accomplish without a table saw) so I made sure to align the factory finished sheet edges perfectly before securing the two sheets together. The other three sides would not be laminated, so I could cut them with a circular saw.
Between the sheets I applied a layer of wood glue and began countersinking and screwing the two layers together, putting in a screw about every 10-12 inches. After letting this dry overnight, I had created one solid 2inch thick sheet of wood out of two 1inch thick sheets.
After measuring the desk space VERY carefully, I cut the piece with a circular saw down to the exact measurements of the desk. Because I would only get one shot at laminating the piece, I lugged the unwieldly 2 inch thick sheet down stairs to stick it up on the wall and see if it fit before beginning the laminating process.
To secure the desk to the wall I had mounted a 2×4 to the wall along the backside and right side of the desk at the exact same height as the shelves on the left side of the desk (see image below). The shelves would be supporting the weight on the left side of the desk. Once I had muscled the unfinished desk into place on top of the 2×4’s and shelving and verified that it fit the space, I took the time to figure out where I wanted the grommet hole located so I could run wires up from underneath the desk. I marked on the piece where I wanted the hole and hauled it back upstairs for laminating.
Once I had the piece back on top of the sawhorses (this time right side up), the first thing I did was cut the grommet hole with a 2 1/8″ hole saw that I had used for installing closet door handles. The size of the hole later turned out to be a mistake. I assumed that I would be able to find a plastic grommet insert for any sized hole, but this is not the case. They come in a lot of sizes, but none that match what I assume is a common sized hole saw. Go figure. Perhaps one day I will locate this elusive grommet.
Once I had the grommet hole cut I was ready to laminate the desk piece. I had bought a 4×8 sheet of white laminate from Home Depot which was surprisingly expensive. I think the sheet cost about $70.
The front of the desk piece would be laminated first so the top laminate would overlap it. I cut a strip from the laminate sheet that would just cover the front of the desk. The dimensions of this strip didn’t have to be perfect because I would later rout the edges with a flush bit which would give me the perfect finish. I set the desk piece down on the floor with the front facing up. After wiping down the entire desk desk with a damp cloth to remove any leftover sawdust, I applied contact cement to the front of the desk piece and also to the strip of laminate. When both had dried, I carefully applied the strip to the front of the desk. The dried contact cement binds to itself instantly. I carefully pounded along the front of the desk with a rubber mallet to make sure it was secure.
After the contact cement had set I was worried about any of the laminate chipping while routing so I used a piece of masking tape to cover the areas that would be cut by the router. I don’t know if this was a necessary step (but better safe than sorry). I used a flush trim router bit and ran around the edges of the front, and this left me with a perfectly laminated desk front.
Once the front was completed, I put the desk back up on the sawhorses and repeated the same process with the top of the desk. When it came time to rout around the top, I was not only worried about chipping but also scratching the front laminate, so I repeated the masking process in addition to covering the front laminate with a strip of masking tape where the flush bit would touch as it ran along that edge.
Because I had laminated over the top of the grommet hole, I plunge cut into that hole through the top of the laminate and routed out a perfect circle.
Once the desk top was laminated I hauled it back downstairs and mounted it in place on top of the 2×4’s with some metal brackets (see a couple of pictures up). The desk was intentionally cut about an 8th of an inch narrow on each side so I could get it into place and I caulked around the edges to make it a perfect fit.
Once the desk was mounted I went a step further and built a box underneath the desk out of some spare wood and aluminum pieces I had laying around to house a subwoofer for the computer speakers. I ended up buying a speaker set with a subwoofer that’s a little bigger than I intended, so I was forced to lower the box down by an additional inch with two 1×2’s mounted above the box.
2 Responses to “Office Space- Built in Desk”
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January 23rd, 2008 at 8:44 pm
Your grommet issue has left me sleepless for two nights as I have searched Google endlessly for 2 1/8″ grommets to no avail. I did have a couple of ideas though. One idea was that if you could somehow chuck a 2 1/4″ grommet in a drill (assuming you don’t have a lathe laying around) that you might be able to use a file to turn off enough of the sidewall to make it fit. I didn’t have one here to inspect the wall thickness so that might not be viable. The second idea was that if you can find a 2 1/8″ tube that you might be able to cut the cap off the mushroom and re-glue it with Gorilla Glue or something to the new smaller tube. Just a couple of random thoughts.
January 24th, 2008 at 7:43 am
I’ve looked at possible cutting it out with a slightly larger hole, and I believe it would require a hole saw arbor like this to keep it steady: http://images.rockler.com/rockler/images/39383a-md.jpg
That’s a good idea about using the mushroom (or even a whole 2″ grommet) and just kind of packing around the sides and letting the width of the top cover up the goof. Thanks Mike!