SoulFallens New Desk Build Log

So, first off, I have no decent camera and the back facing camera on my phone is broken, every picture was essentially a 'selfie' so please, bare with my potato struggle I suffered just as much as the image quality did.

@Atomic_Charge This is my Just Dot It submission.

Welcome to my desk build log, this is something I've been wanting to do for a long time for a few reaons, one, I consider myself pretty handy and like to build things and two, no desk is tall enough to satisfy me ergonomically, also I wanted something minimalist. This is the first piece of actual furnature i've built, i've built random nothing special bullshit in the past but never anything meant to be visually pleasing. Throughout this project I made a total of 8 trips to Home Depot and spent roughly $170 ish total (This includes the 4 Ikea legs and 2 new C clamps I needed which account for $120 of the cost)

The desk started life as a temporary counter top my mother made from pine 20 something years ago and has been sitting in my basement for 15 or so years.

Unfortunately there was a bit of water damage but I decided it was minor enough that I could carry on with the project.

Originally my plan was to use the bottom side of the counter since I found the gloss to be god awfully ugly, however, after a good amount of sanding I realize glue residue and water had left stains that could not be sanded out no matter how hard I tried so I abandonned that plan and started sanding the shit gloss off the top, which was the biggest bitch I've ever dealt with, it was sand papers worst nightmar and took 6+ hours of sanding

Back side had a signifigant amount of damage after being ripped out of the wall in the kitchen remodel but nothing too serious, did the best I could sanding it down to look decent.

After I was satisfied with the surface of my desk I cut some studs to size for an underframe leaving a 3 inch lip on the long ends, and after testing with my vesa arm mount, I settled on a 1.5 inch spacing short ways

I then proceeded to carefully glue it all into place with as tight of a tolerance as possible.


I staggered 2 inch screws throughout which penetrate roughly half way through the top

After putting screws throughout I left the clamps on 2 of the corners that were bending upwards overnight as I hadn't put screws there since that's where the legs would be going.

I salvaged a drawer from my old desk and proceeded to deface it and prepare it for a new face


My project was now at a stand still for an entire week as a waited on the legs, as the legs would ultimately affect drawer position

Weekend number 2 project now back under way with my newly arrived adjustable Ikea legs

I first cut a drawer front to size out of white pine and proceeded to stain it as I knew it would take maybe 10 coats as the original stain for the top is no longer sold anywhere, I ran out, and had to settle for a lighter color stain

After a put a couple consecutive coats on I went to mount the legs, I periodically went back to apply more coats about 4 times through the rest of the build.
After a test fitting I was concerned about leg spacing so I proceeded to lengthen the mounting area on the back side to provide more stability

I used mostly the included mounting screws however I did replace one with the 2 inch wood screws on each (and 2 on the back legs, one to hold that extra piece of wood)

Aaaannnddd Shaboom Shabang it's starting to look like a desk! couldn't help but flip it over and take a look

I flipped it back over and began work on the drawer, I was planning on using the caster hardware from the old desk but decided against it since it would be overkil for such a small drawer and not to mention a pain in the ass to measure and mount properly, so I began constructing a frame for my drawer.

I cut some pine with about 1/8 of an inch of extra height to encase the drawer and began test fitting and seeing where I wanted it all to go.

Once I was satisfied I tried to screw one together and it cracked,... not too badly the piece was still usable so I completely scrapped the idea of using screws for the drawer frame and opted for finishing nails and glue

Forgot to take a picture with them both on at this stage... oops.

Eating lunch on a desk, you're doing it wrong.

After getting the frame work in place I then started working on the drawer again putting a piece of wood in for the face to mount to and also putting something in to keep pens/pencils in place.


Now we're really gettin somewhere... I then spent the next hour getting rid of my piece of shit over 100 pound desk... by myself... My god that was the biggest pain but I wanted it out before dad got home since his hip needs replaced and he's in a lot of pain I refused to let him try to help me and this was the only way to ensure he didn't.

After I got it outside I cut it in half as i needed to carry it about a 50 yards to the fire pit.

FUCK YO SHIT DESK YOU GON BURN


Now the stain on the drawer face was finally dry enough to work with and i mounted it to the drawer

and now for the tricky part of getting the handle dead center and making sure the screw holes line up... nailed it first dry not even 1mm off center

and here's the finished desk!


My setup went from this:


To this:

A new chair too!

Thanks for reading my build log!

15 Likes


I had the same IKEA legs on my linnmon desk, hope yours aren't as wobbly

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They are a tad more wobbly than I'd like but they do the job, as long as nobody falls into my desk drunk with the force of a dead body falling it should be fine.

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Inb4 someone points out I'm not living up to my title.

3 Likes

A properly done build log is 1000x better than any shitpost.

That's a gorgeous piece of wood you got there.

Try a cucumber

In all seriousness though very nice work. I like the minimalist look. Great job!

Any future plans for it?

Might put an led strip on the back at some point, not sure. I'm sure my kids will be doing homework on this desk some day I plan to keep it for a very long time.

Sharing my two weapons of choice with the world stashed away in my lovely drawer

NOICE.

You even have a nicer chair. Although at least I don't use peasant controls :P

I'll 1v1 you with my peasant controls any day m8

You'd win with atari controls right now because of my ISP.

If it weren't for that, I'd annihilate you. KBM beats controller every time.

Great looking desk, makes me want to burn my craigslist special pos

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Holy crap. It looks so gooood. I want to copycat you so bad right now...

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You and @Skelterz should bring your desks to my place and we'll burn them together.

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My desk is actually a livingroom entertainment center that is much higher than a normal desk but is what I find acceptable as desk height (I can lean on my desk and play stuff and not touch the underside at all while not being hunched over like that of notre dame)

I can sit up completely straight and lean on it while I type, it's doing wonders for my back.
Demonstration of the 1337 ergonomics

It's a little harder on the wrists but the tradeoff is more than worth it.

I just chopped in my desk of 15 years for a desk shelf I guess you'd call it. Gets me another foot for VR :)

Anyway if I was to imagine an image of a "desk" I don't think another would be more apt! good job.

crayons for that childhood feel

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Nice job!

Building things is almost as fun as using them when your done :)

Looks great. I have one question for you though. Why didn't you salvage the wood from your old desk for future projects?