What material is best to make a desk?
- Thread starter mk3947
- Start date
In my office...Ok.. Our box bedroom. I built both these.
A cabinet with a fold down table for my wife for her decoupage card making stuff.
and this for my stuff. The desk is a piece of worktop. The weight is taken by three sturdy brackets, plus two more small ones at the top to stop the whole thing leaning forward. Those old vinyl albums are very heavy, plus there's an old CRT TV and a jukebox wallbox.
The working surfaces can be slid in, when not in use.
The table on which my laptop sits is at a height that suits this reclining chair which was replaced in the lounge by one of our "Stressless" recliners. It's lower than a normal office chair.
Easiest way is to get a wood yard to cut all the pieces for you and assemble it yourself, just a case of screwing it together and some sturdy brackets if it's is to be attached to a wall and not free standing.
If you want to change it at any time or add more shelves it's easy enough to do.
A cabinet with a fold down table for my wife for her decoupage card making stuff.
and this for my stuff. The desk is a piece of worktop. The weight is taken by three sturdy brackets, plus two more small ones at the top to stop the whole thing leaning forward. Those old vinyl albums are very heavy, plus there's an old CRT TV and a jukebox wallbox.
The working surfaces can be slid in, when not in use.
The table on which my laptop sits is at a height that suits this reclining chair which was replaced in the lounge by one of our "Stressless" recliners. It's lower than a normal office chair.
Easiest way is to get a wood yard to cut all the pieces for you and assemble it yourself, just a case of screwing it together and some sturdy brackets if it's is to be attached to a wall and not free standing.
If you want to change it at any time or add more shelves it's easy enough to do.
MDF is fine but you have to paint it as untreated it can be damaged by water, or coffee cups placed on it can leave marks.
Contiplas or similar is fine for shelves, you can get that iron on edging if you need it. It's easily wiped down.
But for the actual desk top, a bit of kitchen worktop is best with a rolled edge, makes things look more professional.
It's best to get a woodyard to cut all the sections, so that they have clean edges. Then all you have to do is just have to screw it all together
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2020
- Messages
- 424
- Reaction score
- 52
- Country
For anybody who wants an office which doesn't have to be part of another room, so that "functional" can be perfectly OK, fix Spur uprights to the wall, and sit the worktop on the deepest brackets they do. It will need to be screwed on as they don't come far enough forward to stop it tipping up if you lean on the front edge, but once screwed down it's fine. Set it away from the uprights by the depth of a lenght of worktop upstand, which can just drop in/lift out there to make it easy to pass plugs through.
Have long uprights running above the desk surface and hey presto - a place for any shelves you want.
The height of the desk, and the spacing of the brackets that you need means that a low filing cabinet like this can slide underneath
and the whole structure is strong enough to support the heaviest printer.
The sort of desk and units I made lend themselves to alterations.
I first put this together, getting on for twenty years ago.
The little 14" TV gave up the ghost a few months back.
Last week I acquired another vintage tuner/amp, so I decided to swop it for the little amplifier I was using to play mp3s on my laptop through the speakers, of the vintage jukebox wallbox.
I had the extra shelving cut to size by a wood yard and put it together in a few hours on Friday afternoon.
The whole shelving unit sits on three sturdy brackets and there's two wall fixings securing the shelf under all that vinyl and two more at the top.
The two shelves below the retractable one on which my laptop sits can also be slid out to get at the plug socket bank on the wall.
If necessary the metal filing cabinet can also be pulled out.
I first put this together, getting on for twenty years ago.
The little 14" TV gave up the ghost a few months back.
Last week I acquired another vintage tuner/amp, so I decided to swop it for the little amplifier I was using to play mp3s on my laptop through the speakers, of the vintage jukebox wallbox.
I had the extra shelving cut to size by a wood yard and put it together in a few hours on Friday afternoon.
The whole shelving unit sits on three sturdy brackets and there's two wall fixings securing the shelf under all that vinyl and two more at the top.
The two shelves below the retractable one on which my laptop sits can also be slid out to get at the plug socket bank on the wall.
If necessary the metal filing cabinet can also be pulled out.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2021
- Messages
- 1
- Reaction score
- 1
- Country
Hi, you did it perfectly. Do you have some Drawings or a full design project? Interested to make something similar @mk3947 What did you decide finally?
Thanks for the interest.
No drawings, just a sketch on a bit of paper so I can make a note of the measurments.
I did alter and add a bit to it, to accommodate a vintage Rotel tuner amp
Then again, when I decided to add a couple of bookcase speakers as I hadn't made the bottom shelf long enough.
The Rotel has now been replaced by a Leak.
Last edited: