Office Project: The desk!

I have no excuses.

It has taken me forever (well, at least a week) to blog about the desk—and for no good reason, other than that it has taken me that long to take and edit a few pictures.  But the time has come…

You can see my concept drawing for the desk here, and the technical drawings here.

It took me two trips to pick up all the pieces of the desk from the talented craftsmen at Sean’s Woodworking in Salt Lake City.   Have I mentioned that it’s NINE FEET wide??  Go big or go home, I say!

They would have been happy to bring it to me and install it for me—but that version is for people who have more money than time (that’s not me).  But never having installed cabinets before, I really didn’t know what I was up against!  So here’s a quick re-cap, if you’re interested.

Because I was going to be installing things myself, they built the upper cabinets with a cleat system, so they could be briefly hung on the wall on a 2x4 until I could screw the cabinets themselves into the wall.  This was a very good thing.  Otherwise, it would have taken a fair amount of juggling and weight-lifting to get everything up and level!

I carefully marked my studs, and first screwed the cleat for the bridge unit into them.  Then I discovered that the cleats for the bookshelves on either end did NOT transverse two studs!  That was not a happy moment, and that’s why the cleat is crooked in the picture!  I ended up using drywall anchors to secure one end of the cleat.

I prevailed on a neighbor to come help my husband and I lift the bridge unit up onto the cleat—it was heavy!  Then I screwed it into the wall.   The side pieces we could handle on our own!

I posted this “sneak peek” on Facebook the day we were installing it!

I ran into a few snags on the installation.  This desk is meant to be used for a computer, and so we needed holes for cables/cords to pass through.  When I picked the desk up, I was supposed to have them drilled—but we all forgot.  They assured me I could do it myself, but it was really NOT an easy project.

For example, drilling though the desk top involved drilling through TWO 3/4” pieces of wood, plus a 3/4” piece of MDF!  It took a good 20 minutes to get through all that.

…but at least I learned that the desk was sturdy!  Yep, I climbed on top of it.  And really—it was easier to do that part than the two holes that had to be drilled in the sides of the cabinets below!

But drilling the holes was only part of the solution—you see, there are DRAWERS under the counter top, and thus there was no where for the cords to go.

My solution was to knock off the back of one of the drawers, cut the drawer bottom down my 3 inches, and reattach the back of the drawer.  It was a little hard on the MDF…

…and trust me, it was emotionally difficult to break part of a brand-new and expensive desk!

Next problem was due to a bit of a miscommunication, I think.  I requested a pull-out shelf in the right-side cabinet for my printer.  They built me a drawer inside the cabinet:

The difference was that my printer wouldn’t fit in the drawer!  So I took it out to my table saw and sliced off the top three inches all around—thus creating my own shelf.

Not so pretty, maybe, but it worked!

So here’s a brief tour of my favorite features:

** My printer is tucked away, with space for paper as well!

** The CPU is also tucked away, but in a prettily vented cabinet (I got the idea to use decorative sheet metal from Meridian Road).

** I love the upper bridge.  I gave up on seeded glass (it was expensive).  The cabinets look like they open upward, but that’s only because of where the pulls are installed.  Upper hinges are VERY expensive, so this was a great cheat!

**  I love the corbels under the bookcases, but I will admit that they are not as eye-catching as I hoped they would be.  But I love them because Sheri from Sean’s Woodworking let me come to the shop and help paint and distress them (more on that another time).

So there you have it!  It is, without a doubt, the “most major” part of the whole “front-room-to-office” project.  There are still more things to be done in the room—a couple of furniture pieces to finish, and I’d like a rug—but we’re actually using that poor unloved front room now!

And I am happy to say that I actually like having the computer there.  It’s easier to keep track of what the children are doing, more convenient for me to use, and best of all…

…it’s pretty!

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P.S.  The Map Wall may be found here.

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This project has been featured at My Repurposed Life and Primitive & Proper.

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