Child Item

Home office custom furniture build

My partner and I were lucky enough to move into a beautifully renovated 1914 Spanish Mission house in September 2017, and since then have set about turning it into a home. A few window locks, a side gate to keep the dog in, getting all the original internal doors swinging smoothly and a few new bathroom fixtures.... and we were done!

With no kids yet, we have a few spare rooms, so I decided to turn what was a formal lounge into a home office.

dressy estate agent "before shot"

After some inspiration from a local trendy cafe, it was straight onto pinterest and google and then down to bunnings with some measurements and plans in hand to pick up a few bits and pieces.

20mm Galvanised pipe Acacia bench/panel 2200 x 600 x26

Then off to complete our gumtree purchase/pick-up and we were ready to begin:

Photo 22-3-18, 3 52 25 pm.jpg

First step was to pull apart the filling cabinet sand back flaking paint & rust then taping up the shiny bits ready for primer and paint.

Photo 22-3-18, 4 13 25 pm.jpg sanded and taped up first coat of primer

The galvanised pipe comes with an oily coating and barcode stickers, which had to be soaked and scrubbed off with hot soapy water and turpentine:

hot soapy soaking more buckets on the turps 115 pieces all up

Then it was time for a basic assembly for a test fit...

constructing the legs shelf supports coming together test fit - frame test fit - desktop Photo 12-3-18, 11 19 21 am.jpg

Next step was some basic asembly and to prime and paint all the pipe and fittings - 115 pieces all up! 😲

homemade mini spray-booth primer primer 2nd coat of primer more priming priming shelf uprights

After the last coat of primer it was time for 2-3 coats of matt black spray enamel.

last coat of primer Photo 28-4-18, 5 22 17 pm.jpg

Once all the coats of spray enamel had dried it was onto final assembly.

THE FILLING CABINET was the easiest job with just a soak and wpe down of the polished handles and fittings in vinegar solution.

THE DESK legs and feet were adjusted for level, a few mini coach screws from underneath the table top and that was done.

BOOKSHELF was the last to be assembled ... First the uprights were grouped in 4's of the same height to aid in levelling the unit, then with only 96 holes drilled and filled with 96 specially ordered matt black nuts and bolts it was all done...AND....

The final product is below....

Lower leg & footing Leg upright Shelves

Only additional bit of work was to bring in an electrician who put in some down lights:

Photo 28-5-18, 12 02 53 pm.jpg

Find more posts tagged with

Furniture

Accepted answers

All comments

Jason

Fantastic project, many thanks for sharing with us @ogosh. The final result looks fantastic.

It must have been a very exciting 12 months for you - congratulations on the new home.

Let me also extend a very warm welcome to the Workshop community. We're really pleased you could join us and look forward to reading more about your projects and plans. We hope you get loads of inspiration and helpful information from our community members for your work around the house and garden. Feel free post whenever you need a hand or have a new project to share.

Jason

Isobel

Well done @ogosh. Love the industrial look. And that timber benchtop looks beautiful. Great choice.

Can I suggest you invest in some cable management? It would finish off the project if you could find a way to hide all the cabling.

Something like this against the wall would help - https://www.bunnings.com.au/d-line-2m-white-mini-adhesive-cover-cable-management_p4430324

Or there's something like this if you want to get more serious and go through the wall - https://www.bunnings.com.au/cableclear-50mm-wall-cavity-cable-management-duct_p4430714

Itai

Hi @ogosh

It looks awesome, and you've done really well.
I agree with Isobel around the cable management, as you have a very "exposed" setup now, so cables are easily noticeable. Depending on your willingness to pull apart, you could potentially use the piping for cable management. By threading some USB extension cables through them and also some power and HDMI extension cables.

And if you are willing to do that, depending on your comfort levels of the desk, you might consider at the same time moving the lower support crossbar to the back, so that it doesn't get into the way of your foot. But that's merely personal preference 🙂

Regards

Itai

Jason

Thanks for joining in the discussion @Itai. Great to have you as one of our latest Workshop community members. A very warm welcome to you. I trust you will receive lots of advice and inspiration from our members and it looks like you have plenty of knowledge and experience that you can share, too. I look forward to reading about your projects and plans. Please post whenever you need a hand or have a project to share.

Thanks again,

Jason

ogosh

Hi @Isobel thanks for your suggestions, I had the same thought of tidying up the cables to give it that clean open industrial look and went with this cable caddy from Ikea.... as you can tell from the photos in my post its pretty useless!

cable management.JPG

Annoyingly, I'm unable to really tidy it up properly by going through the wall, as its a double brick. Also something I neglected to mention in my original post is that the whole project is designed to be portable/free-standing so it can be moved into another room/space quite easily. Otherwise I would have just used a substantial wall cleat and some nice angled brackets for a really clean open finish look.

Alas I am yet to find a cable management solution that is perfect. On the one hand I need it to house a 6 gang powerboard with space for 5 bulky transformers (printer, phone, laptop, modem, router)... but at the same time be something I can use to tuck away a few extra long USB cables..... yet also have access to be cables to unplug a laptop & phone charger easily enough when I work out of the office or travel etc.

Might look into something like an opened up section of PVC pipe, or even just using washi tape to brighten up and make a feature of the cables thay I just can't tuck away.

The other option would be to screw the powerboard into the underside of the table and use some sort of cable management clips/cable ties to keep it all tucked up...

Might start a new post asking about peopls cable management tips and tricks, otherwise it could be a lot of trial-and-error

ogosh

Thanks @Itai,

On this one I cant ues extension cables as Im trying to keep all the cables up as high as possible to keep them out of view rather than running them down to the ground or through the pipe etc, although switching to all black cables and running them beind the legs would camouflage them pretty well.

My original plan was to have the cross beam running along the back between and connecting all 4 of the rear legs but I couldnt get any 4-way connectors even though bunings does advertise them. In any case it turned out to be a bit of good luck having them centred as when I sit at the desk it works perfectly as a foot rest and if im at a join with a connector it makes a good foot massager as well 😋

Itai

Thanks Jason 🙂

Mhall

Inspiring @ogosh.

ogosh

Hi @Mhall

Thanks mate!

ogosh

A few people have sent me messages asking about cost, so without too detailed a breakdown here they are:
Pipe, fittings, timber panel, and screws for the desk came to $336
Pipe fittings, timber panel, nuts & bolts for the bookshelf came to $430
Paint and primer was $22
All up total was $788
The only extravagant expense was custom black nuts and bolts for the bookshelf which came to $42.00 on their own...ouch!

Jason

Many thanks for sharing your numbers @ogosh. Sounds like your project has inspired many Workshop members. Well done!

Jason

bluemoonskye

@ogosh

Loved the progress commentary & photos. Was inspirational.

I purchased that acacia timber length (marked as a shelf), with the hope of cutting a length off to replace a side table top. But I wasn’t sure what the cut edge would look like. Is that what you used for the shelving system? And how did you treat the raw edge?

thx in advance 😊

ogosh

Hi @bluemoonskye,

Thanks for your kind comments,

The acacia panel is designed as a wet area/kitchen benchtop, so is finished on all 6 sides and ready to use as is, my shelves are in a home office so not concerned about waterproof-ness.

However to ensure I only had nice finished edges showing, I had the panel cut strategically as follows.

Once lengthways down the middle giving two 220cm x 30cm strips
Then each of those were cut equally into 3 in three, to give 6 shelves at around 72cm long by 30cm deep

That way each shelf had at least one finished edge, but 4 (of the 6) had 2 fined edges (all the corner pieces from the original panel) perfect for a bookshelf which goes in a corner where only 2 of the 4 edges are visible.

With the 2 unfinished edge pieces, I put that right down the bottom at ankle height and the other right at the top well above head height, and I don't really see it at all.

Of course you could always get some stain/finish/sealer etc to tidy up any cut edges, but I didn't bother.

bluemoonskye

Great planning!

What did you cut it with? I have a saw table but it doesn’t have a fine tooth blade on it. And I’m worried I might wreck the timber!

ogosh

You can mask up the surface with masking tape to prevent scratching and tear out and use a good straight edge and circular saw to rip it and then cross cut or just buy a new finer tooth table saw blade, should be less than $30.00

But I just had my local bunnings store cut it, if they do it smart it’s just 3 cuts which I think is only a $3 or so they often don’t charge either!

StevieB

Hi @ogosh,

Thanks for sharing your creative project with us. It's been really popular with almost 13,000 views.

Did you end up finding a suitable cable management solution? It would be great to hear an update.

Stevie

ogosh

Hi @StevieB,

Good timing.... I have just moved the desk and will be resetting it all up shortly in a new space and will send an update as soon as that is complete.

STAY TUNED.....

KatieC

Hi ogosh,

Really amazing work on your custom home office build!

I have seen a similar looking bookshelf for $1200 so that is quite a saving making it yourself!

Have you been up to more projects as of late? Your level of detailed approach is great and appreciated by so many other members.

Katie

ogosh

Thanks @KatieC ,

Thanks so much.

Indeed I have.a new project up on the workshop community.. another industrial style furniture build.... see here:

https://www.workshop.bunnings.com.au/t5/Outdoor/Custom-industrial-outdoor-table/m-p/95329#M13937

Hope you like it.

Osher 🙂

ogosh

5 years on from completion and after moving house I can happily report that both the desk and bookshelves are standing strong and in good order. The ability to easily adjust every leg/foot for level is super convenient and the only wear was from a few knocks in transit and from using the footrest under the desk as intended where some paint has rubbed away an way $5 paint fix/touch up.

As for cable management I’ve continued to use the ikea cable basket mentioned above but also just tucked in and velcro strapped a few cables behind the filling cabinet and it’s all neat and tidy.

Akanksha

Thanks for coming back to update us, @ogosh. Great to hear the desk and bookshelves have held up well.

Congratulations on this terrific project once again. I'm sure you have inspired many members to build their own home office furniture.

Look forward to seeing more of your handiwork.

Akanksha

Dave-1

@ogosh

Wow, I hadnt seen this project before. It certainly came up nicely and fits with the style of your house! Five years and its still going strong 🙂 Couldnt ask for more from something you built yourself!

I actually like the wide base of the feet for the table. It would give it a lot of stability without marking the floor.

Dave

ogosh

Hi Dave,

Yeah it’s really been problem free, and especially through Covid etc it got heavy use working from home.

The wide feet and using 6 legs really babes it VERY stable indeed, Felt pads stuck underneath the feet protect the polished timber floors.

Child Item