Tag: home office

DIY Walnut & Oak Desk with Adjustable Base

Nick Momrik4 Comments

It was time for a new desk for my home office. I ordered this TOPSKY desk base on Amazon for $220.99.

Over the years, without success, I’ve tried to stand some while working. Hopefully a motorized adjustable base will encourage me to stand for certain tasks and even if I can do a couple of 20-30 minute sessions each day it’ll be a big help.

I got to work processing walnut boards and white oak flooring.

There was a lot of jointing, cross-cutting, ripping, planing, more ripping, and trimming. I’m excited to use that box of off-cuts to make an end grain cutting board or two! I felt like the key to this build was going to be the glue-ups. I started with sections of 9-10 pieces and ended up with eight of those.

I ran each section through the planer, with the help of some shimming for a couple, to flatten them. I made a temporary sled to square up the sides to the faces.

To help assemble the sections, I used a couple of biscuits on each glue joint.

I glued up two sections at a time, which gave me four bigger sections. Then I glued up two of those at a time and one final glue up.

I drilled and put in all of the bolt inserts, which will attach the top to the desk base.

I took three passes with the router to put a big chamfer along the bottom edge.

With a jigsaw, I rough cut out a spot in the back to pass cables through. Then I did some sanding to smooth it out and added a chamfer with the router. Here is it, viewed with the desk bottom facing up.

Due to the base’s cross support, there’s was limited depth for drawers, but there was width for them. I took some old kitchen cabinet drawers, chopped them in half, and closed them up with scrap plywood.

Then I worked on what I’m calling the drawer box even though it’s not a box. I also cut top rails from hardboard and oversized drawer faces from walnut. Grabbed strips of walnut for face-framing and glued together pieces of oak to make drawer pulls.

All the sanding! I went through 80, 120, 180, and 220 grits on the top and sides of the desk.

Time to put some finish on, which is always a favorite step to see how it’s really going to look. It was my first time trying out a hard wax oil and I used Bee Nooba Wax from Bumblechutes. It was very easy to apply and I’ll definitely be using it on future projects. I applied one coat to the bottom and three coats to the sides and top.

Then it was back to the drawers. I stained the “box” black and ended up having to trim some things to fit better around the rail of the desk base. I sized the drawer faces, made oak handles with 10° angles, assembled everything, and applied finish.

It turned out great! I can’t wait to see it in our new house later this year!

DIY Desk Backer

Nick Momrik2 Comments

Here it is, the final project I had planned for my new home office.

The idea for this actually started a year ago, when I rotated my desk in the old office.

The back of my desk is obviously meant to be up against a wall, so it’s not a finished look with the particle board and the big access holes. At the time, I was thinking I could create some type of artsy piece for the back using reclaimed pallet wood. I didn’t have any motivation to make anything over the winter though.

Fast forward to this year and moving my office to a newly redone room across the hall. With better lighting, the back of the desk stuck out even more.

My idea came back to me and inspired part of the plant stand. I acquired a bunch of reclaimed oak flooring from the 50s to use for both projects. Hopefully the following pictures tell a little bit of the story about how the idea went from my brain, to a 3D model/plan, and came to life.

SketchUp model
39 different sized pieces
Flooring boards before processing
Making sure all of the pieces work
Starting to glue up panels
Keeping everything lined up was tricky
Making sure it fits the desk
Whoops! A corner on each side broke while cutting out the profiles
Finishing!

It was probably the most complicated build I’ve done. Really happy with how it turned out!

If you want the plans you can grab a SketchUp file on GitHub.

Office Blinds

Nick Momrik3 Comments

I’m nearing the end of my plans for the new home office. For several years I’d been thinking about getting top down bottom up blinds for the room that used to be my office. With both rooms being at the front of the house I didn’t want people looking in while I was at my desk, I didn’t want to be distracted all day by neighbors moving about their yards, and I wanted to let more light in. So when I needed blinds for the new room, I ordered some. They came in this week, were easy to install, and work great. Now that I have them set I’m not sure I’ll ever touch them unless I want to open the windows.

These two windows are pretty big, with the blinds being 76×65 and 52×65. Smith & Noble wanted almost $900! I found some from SelectBlinds for $430. Both of those are before sales/discounts. It was an easy choice (they’re just blinds!) and the final price was $292 total for the two blinds. I’ve also ordered one for a tall window next to my front door ($92), which is directly in my line of sight while working.

I’m not sure I’ll buy another type of blind again. These don’t have any strings to fight with and no wands to turn. You raise/lower the top or bottom by grabbing a couple of handles and moving them where you want. It’s so easy and gives you more options.

The last thing I have planned for the office is going to be a challenging build for me, so I’m excited to take it on and see how it turns out. Stay tuned!

My New Office: Lighting & Furniture

Nick Momrik2 Comments

One of the next steps in the new office project was lighting. The room didn’t have any, so I installed a ceiling light today.

I hadn’t posted about the furniture yet, which came in a couple of weeks ago. I’ve always wanted a brown leather chair in my office but didn’t have space for it. Now I do. White seemed more fitting.

I also have some top down bottom up blinds ordered, but I won’t get those for weeks because it took forever to get some samples. The air conditioning install starts tomorrow morning, so I’ll be able to move in my desk very soon!

Creating a New Home Office

Nick Momrik5 Comments

Late in August I’m finally getting air conditioning (Mitsubishi mini splits) installed in my house. One of the wall units will be in the room across the hall from my current office, so I decided I’ll move there. The room is larger, gets more natural light, and has never been used for anything.

I’ve spent a lot of time in that room over the last three weekends, removing wallpaper, painting, and installing flooring. I’m loving with how it’s turning out. Here’s a before and after with the progress so far.

It’s been nice to have a big project to focus on. This room has already become a happy place whenever I walk by or look across from where my desk is now. Since I spend so much time in my office, I have several other plans for the room. More to come!