Second Project

Desk

So my actual second project is a special order for the wife that's a long time coming.  She has needed a second desk for her office.  So I had planned to do it before but never got around to it.  Then had to come up with a design for it.  I was planning a super basic table top type but after further discussion with wife we had a full idea of what is wanted.  This was the picture online that lead to the plan.

This is actually a higher table and usually used with stools, but I shortened it but used the basic design to a tea.  I did take out the side shelves and made it a solid piece of wood.  But it has a really basic design.  Also decided to put a herringbone pattern on the tabletop and turn the flat area on the side into a chalkboard.  But used mostly poplar for the body of the desk.  The top is a sheet of MDF plywood.

These are some of the beginning stages.

I used 2x2 for the legs, 1x8 for the shelf side, 1x2 for the top supports.  I also used the 2x2 for supports of the corners and top.  And with the construction being so basic the frame went together super easy.  I screwed and glued the joints and connections to make sure it would stand up to being used in a busy school office.  I also capped the screw holes by counter sunk the heads then gluing a small section of a wooden dowel then sanding it down flat.  Took a short time to sand them down seeing as I didn't have a belt sander but I eventually got them down before I was to paint.

Construction of the shelf end and capping the screws.

Once I got all the pieces together it was basically ready to paint.  Now this was more of an expensive project than I have done before but the quality of it was worth it so it would not break down once being used.  All in all it was about $170 for everything.  But that includes way more paint than I actually needed.  But hopefully I will find another use for it once I am done.  But this is everything together with just the top resting on top.

I think as construction of this was so easy, the hard part was painting it.  I took the time to prime everything before actually painting it.  So many coats of primer then coats of the semi gloss white.  It was so much painting I did not get photos until it was all done, even after I finished the table top pattern.  But I found a lovely step by step procedure from This Old House website, here is the link:

http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/how-to/intro/0,,20511051,00.html

I followed the procedure to a tea, using everything it called for.  Mine did not come out exactly as theirs but gosh darn close enough.

After I finished the top I finished it off with 4 coats of Polyurethane to make it more durable.  After that all that was left was the black board for the side.  I taped it off then went to get my paint I had used before on a previous project, oh about 4 years previous.  Turn out it was no good.  So had to get some more, but easy enough to find at any home improvement store.

Blackboard came out well, I always worry that the paint will bleed under the tape, glad it did not.

Then all I had to do was attach the top and its ready to go in the wife's office.  Glad its all done only took a little over a week.  But did not get too much time work on it during the week, so it only came to the weekends.  But hopefully it will fit in the office well and help pull together the space.

Desk is now finished.  Yay!