evomac
04-08-2008, 06:59 PM
Afternoon all. I'm fairly new here, so I'm sure most of you have no idea who I am :). I have been planning on redoing my desk ever since I bought it. As of today I finally got a lot of it together and now need to put some finishing touches to it. I posted this on another forum as well, but I really enjoy this forum so I figured I'd share with you guys :banana:
Some backstory. Found out the wife was pregnant. We have a 2 bedroom condo. The second bedroom was essentially my "man-den". Had my big screen, home theater, and computers. However now that has since become the nursery and every room in our condo has had to get redone to get ready for the baby.
Nursery before. Don't have a great before pic, so this is it spackled. (why not, pictures are fun)
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2290/2325033092_4093f91fdc_b.jpg
Nursery after. The stripes are all hand painted. Took my grandfather and I about 12 hours to complete. The wall on the right is the red wall you see in the before.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2347/2325033104_1413581a08_b.jpg
So since my man-den had been all baby'ed up, I was forced to bring my computers out to the living room. Given the space I was "allotted" I had to find a corner desk. My wife and I went to about 8 different furniture places and I couldn't find anything that fit and was what I was looking for. One night, perusing CraigsList in my area I saw someone selling a corner desk for $25 bucks. Measured up alright. Saw that it was structurally in decent shape (aesthetically it was quite worn), but for $25 bucks it was well worth it.
Here are a couple shots of the desk after I put my stuff on it. Make sure to note the front of the desk where the entire trim was so kindly removed. Also, apparently mousepads were optional on the right side. Then again if you look at my mouse, I had no room to place a decent pad on the left side either.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2319/2399030692_6ebb7f633a_b.jpg
Head on you will see the sea of cabling coming down from the desk. Also behind the monitor stand if you look close you will see that it was my router / modem dumping ground. Sea of wires and clutter.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2117/2399031900_86feed7380_b.jpg
Another head on shot. As you can see it was really close to our china cabinet.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2117/2399031900_86feed7380_b.jpg
Just a side note, the computer is actually the same terrible case I'm using for my Q6600, but for those pictures it was my AMD computer which is currently sidelined at the moment awaiting some sort of HTPC project.
From that point I was planning out how to make the desk not suck. I wanted something that would give me ample working desktop space, I wanted it to be as neat as possible, and less of a eye sore. First I debated building one from scratch. I started figuring out the plans and planning the project. Then it actually struck my grandfather that the one thing that is good shape on the desk the the actual flat top and the legs.
Well its a perfect starting point!
I wish I had actual "doing the work" pics. However honestly I really didn't even think about posting it at that time. After all the work, I then figured I might as well show it a little so I am sorry for the lack of work pictures.
I decided on going with a flat desk top with only a monitor stand attached to it. I hated all the other useless shelves on the desk so they all had to go. I decided to go with a Oak finish for the wood, since that has my favorite grain look. I picked up a 4x8 piece of 3/4 Oak veneered plywood. For those of you not familiar with it, it is essentially a 3/4 piece of plywood with the top and bottom finished with a thin layer of real oak.
Total cost of 4x8 plywood was ~65 compared to probably somewhere around 200 for a piece of solid oak and it stains identically. I decided to shorten up the left side of the desk 2 inches and extend the right side about a foot. This would give the desk some breathing room from the curio cabinet and some extra desk space on the right side.
Note to the unhitched readers... when your wife says you can have more space, you take it!
The one thing that really urked me about the original design of the desk is that the monitor stand stood over a foot from the back of the desk. Causing a ton of wasted space behind the monitor. I threw my modem and router there to try to justify the space. With the new desk design, I wanted the monitor shelf sucked up to the back of the desk. The stand was cut essentially from the leftover piece of the plywood. Along with the support for it.
Once all the pieces were cut, they were stained the same color as the woodwork in our condo. For the clear, water based varnish was used. 3 coats of varnish were applied with a light sanding after each coat to give the desk a nice smooth finish.
Now as you all know, the side of plywood is hideous. It shows all the layers of the wood pressed together unevenly. Pretty much not "good eats". To remedy this, I picked up solid oak door trim. This was perfect for covering the front edge of the desk. It's other function was to completely block out of site the old desktop that we would be mounting this new desktop to.
For the monitor stand, we used the same door trim, however trimmed it flush to the plywood since there was really no need to have the lip hang down.
Here's a shot of the top with lip placed over the desk. As you can tell the new desktop has a 2 inch overhang. This is where the front edging wore off on the old desktop as I pointed out in a earlier pic.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2222/2398182217_27648143bf_b.jpg
Here are some shots of the desktop as it is now fully installed.
Overhead shot of the desk. As you can tell, I am trying to go with the whole "less is more thing". On the desk I have my Razer Lachesis mouse , Saitek Eclipse keyboard, Zboard Fang, telephone, and my Wacom Tablet. On the monitor stand currently only the monitor is there, however speakers will be making their way up there shortly.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2040/2399010480_4147d38b1c_b.jpg
Wider angle
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3146/2399010872_66d656871b_b.jpg
Lower angle. You will start to see the lack of cables around. I will get into that shortly :). PS: Yes I know my baseboard has no cover. I have to install that this week. It was just put in prior to me painting and didn't have the correct covers for it yet. Yes also the room was painted before I put the desk in. /Wave hideous pink walls :bang head
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3219/2399011054_30bd6847df_b.jpg
Now to get to some of the goodies I put on the desk. Features if you will. Cut out some aluminum and made a bracket for my card reader. This will be taken down, straightened out a bit, and painted black. The wire hanging also will be properly routed under the monitor stand with 2 small hook screws. The USB cable is wired to the bottom port of the monitor (Dell 2005FPW, it has 4 usb ports. Two in the back & two on the sides).
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2312/2399011210_416c40be30_b.jpg
Trim / peripheral closeup. Keyboard and Fang are going to be taking a ride down dishwasher lane this weekend. I would have done it before mounting, but there are dirty dishes in there :P
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2164/2398181937_eaed4c6892_b.jpg
I call this cable management part 1. Underneath the desk by the corner of the wall, there is a mounted surge protector & a 8 port USB hub. The surge protector is being used by devices that need to be plugged in on or around the desk. Currently it's just the monitor, USB hub, and telephone. The USB hub is being used for anything connected to the desk. Currently its the keyboard, mouse, Fang, Wacom, and the Dell monitor (which if you remember currently has the card reader). This part is definitely part of the remaining 10%. Right now the cables are sorta just tossed there. They will all be mounted with proper hook screws, cable ties, and cable tacks.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3285/2398182087_091f288f4b_b.jpg
Another shot of underneath. Little farther out.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3022/2398180663_fba4ab14ec_b.jpg
USB hub up close, showing bracket... and messy cables. That will be fixed!
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2143/2399010258_2b88f5b764_b.jpg
Some backstory. Found out the wife was pregnant. We have a 2 bedroom condo. The second bedroom was essentially my "man-den". Had my big screen, home theater, and computers. However now that has since become the nursery and every room in our condo has had to get redone to get ready for the baby.
Nursery before. Don't have a great before pic, so this is it spackled. (why not, pictures are fun)
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2290/2325033092_4093f91fdc_b.jpg
Nursery after. The stripes are all hand painted. Took my grandfather and I about 12 hours to complete. The wall on the right is the red wall you see in the before.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2347/2325033104_1413581a08_b.jpg
So since my man-den had been all baby'ed up, I was forced to bring my computers out to the living room. Given the space I was "allotted" I had to find a corner desk. My wife and I went to about 8 different furniture places and I couldn't find anything that fit and was what I was looking for. One night, perusing CraigsList in my area I saw someone selling a corner desk for $25 bucks. Measured up alright. Saw that it was structurally in decent shape (aesthetically it was quite worn), but for $25 bucks it was well worth it.
Here are a couple shots of the desk after I put my stuff on it. Make sure to note the front of the desk where the entire trim was so kindly removed. Also, apparently mousepads were optional on the right side. Then again if you look at my mouse, I had no room to place a decent pad on the left side either.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2319/2399030692_6ebb7f633a_b.jpg
Head on you will see the sea of cabling coming down from the desk. Also behind the monitor stand if you look close you will see that it was my router / modem dumping ground. Sea of wires and clutter.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2117/2399031900_86feed7380_b.jpg
Another head on shot. As you can see it was really close to our china cabinet.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2117/2399031900_86feed7380_b.jpg
Just a side note, the computer is actually the same terrible case I'm using for my Q6600, but for those pictures it was my AMD computer which is currently sidelined at the moment awaiting some sort of HTPC project.
From that point I was planning out how to make the desk not suck. I wanted something that would give me ample working desktop space, I wanted it to be as neat as possible, and less of a eye sore. First I debated building one from scratch. I started figuring out the plans and planning the project. Then it actually struck my grandfather that the one thing that is good shape on the desk the the actual flat top and the legs.
Well its a perfect starting point!
I wish I had actual "doing the work" pics. However honestly I really didn't even think about posting it at that time. After all the work, I then figured I might as well show it a little so I am sorry for the lack of work pictures.
I decided on going with a flat desk top with only a monitor stand attached to it. I hated all the other useless shelves on the desk so they all had to go. I decided to go with a Oak finish for the wood, since that has my favorite grain look. I picked up a 4x8 piece of 3/4 Oak veneered plywood. For those of you not familiar with it, it is essentially a 3/4 piece of plywood with the top and bottom finished with a thin layer of real oak.
Total cost of 4x8 plywood was ~65 compared to probably somewhere around 200 for a piece of solid oak and it stains identically. I decided to shorten up the left side of the desk 2 inches and extend the right side about a foot. This would give the desk some breathing room from the curio cabinet and some extra desk space on the right side.
Note to the unhitched readers... when your wife says you can have more space, you take it!
The one thing that really urked me about the original design of the desk is that the monitor stand stood over a foot from the back of the desk. Causing a ton of wasted space behind the monitor. I threw my modem and router there to try to justify the space. With the new desk design, I wanted the monitor shelf sucked up to the back of the desk. The stand was cut essentially from the leftover piece of the plywood. Along with the support for it.
Once all the pieces were cut, they were stained the same color as the woodwork in our condo. For the clear, water based varnish was used. 3 coats of varnish were applied with a light sanding after each coat to give the desk a nice smooth finish.
Now as you all know, the side of plywood is hideous. It shows all the layers of the wood pressed together unevenly. Pretty much not "good eats". To remedy this, I picked up solid oak door trim. This was perfect for covering the front edge of the desk. It's other function was to completely block out of site the old desktop that we would be mounting this new desktop to.
For the monitor stand, we used the same door trim, however trimmed it flush to the plywood since there was really no need to have the lip hang down.
Here's a shot of the top with lip placed over the desk. As you can tell the new desktop has a 2 inch overhang. This is where the front edging wore off on the old desktop as I pointed out in a earlier pic.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2222/2398182217_27648143bf_b.jpg
Here are some shots of the desktop as it is now fully installed.
Overhead shot of the desk. As you can tell, I am trying to go with the whole "less is more thing". On the desk I have my Razer Lachesis mouse , Saitek Eclipse keyboard, Zboard Fang, telephone, and my Wacom Tablet. On the monitor stand currently only the monitor is there, however speakers will be making their way up there shortly.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2040/2399010480_4147d38b1c_b.jpg
Wider angle
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3146/2399010872_66d656871b_b.jpg
Lower angle. You will start to see the lack of cables around. I will get into that shortly :). PS: Yes I know my baseboard has no cover. I have to install that this week. It was just put in prior to me painting and didn't have the correct covers for it yet. Yes also the room was painted before I put the desk in. /Wave hideous pink walls :bang head
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3219/2399011054_30bd6847df_b.jpg
Now to get to some of the goodies I put on the desk. Features if you will. Cut out some aluminum and made a bracket for my card reader. This will be taken down, straightened out a bit, and painted black. The wire hanging also will be properly routed under the monitor stand with 2 small hook screws. The USB cable is wired to the bottom port of the monitor (Dell 2005FPW, it has 4 usb ports. Two in the back & two on the sides).
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2312/2399011210_416c40be30_b.jpg
Trim / peripheral closeup. Keyboard and Fang are going to be taking a ride down dishwasher lane this weekend. I would have done it before mounting, but there are dirty dishes in there :P
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2164/2398181937_eaed4c6892_b.jpg
I call this cable management part 1. Underneath the desk by the corner of the wall, there is a mounted surge protector & a 8 port USB hub. The surge protector is being used by devices that need to be plugged in on or around the desk. Currently it's just the monitor, USB hub, and telephone. The USB hub is being used for anything connected to the desk. Currently its the keyboard, mouse, Fang, Wacom, and the Dell monitor (which if you remember currently has the card reader). This part is definitely part of the remaining 10%. Right now the cables are sorta just tossed there. They will all be mounted with proper hook screws, cable ties, and cable tacks.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3285/2398182087_091f288f4b_b.jpg
Another shot of underneath. Little farther out.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3022/2398180663_fba4ab14ec_b.jpg
USB hub up close, showing bracket... and messy cables. That will be fixed!
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2143/2399010258_2b88f5b764_b.jpg