Share
This easy D.I.Y. desk utilised RapidMesh furniture legs and a Pine panel.
The project
In need of a new desk, I had two RapidMesh furniture legs and a Pine panel delivered during lockdown.
We painted the panel with liming white paint and it came up really well.
The liming wash was great to use and it's a more subtle white than a white gloss. I only used one coat of the liming wash as I still wanted to see the grain of the timber. It was easy to apply and I left it to dry overnight before I added the desk legs.
I used six screws to secure each leg. The holes are already in the legs so it's easy and solid.
Materials
- 2 RapidMesh 70 x 73.2 x 6cm Black Santos steel tube table furniture legs
- 12 screws
Popular desk projects
Creating a dedicated workspace or updating an existing one can be simple and affordable, and you'll have everything you need to be more productive when working from home. For more simple D.I.Y. desk projects, check out our Top 10 most popular desk projects.
This simple and spacious deck by robchin should also provide inspiration.
Got the job done over the weekend!
It’s come up really nicely, what a difference a big desk makes. Thanks again for the advice and recommendations, I’m keen to see what my next project will be 😊
Hello @Megha
Let me tag @cmstar to make them aware of your kind words and questions. It does sometimes feel that way when you screw in from the back of the table, it will pop out the other side. You can easily avoid this by getting the measurements of your table and legs.
Let's do some quick calculations, if the AraucoPly 2100 x 900 x 30mm Clear Pine FJ Laminated Panel is 30mm thick and the RapidMesh 70 x 73.2 x 6cm Black La Paz Steel Tube Table Furniture Leg has a top thickness of 5mm. The overall thickness would be 35mm. If you use Zenith 10G x 30mm Gold Passivated Type 17 Countersunk Head Timber Screws it won't breach the top of the table because it's only 30mm long.
However, if you're still worried about the screw length you can get the next size down. One of the best ways to do it is to place the legs right next to the top you'll be using and place the screw right alongside it. This will guarantee that the screw you'll be using won't be too long for the table and legs. I've placed a diagram below for you to see.
If you have any other questions we can help with, please let us know.
Eric
Hi @hungrymind,
Creating a keyboard tray for your desk sounds like an excellent modification and a relatively simple project for a beginner.
Unfortunately, I don't know of a way you could simply mount drawer slides on an angle bracket, so it might be a bit more complex than you are thinking, but this is an option that you could use.
The idea is to essentially create a box, then add some side panels to attach the box to with some drawer slides.
I would suggest using a Specrite 1200 x 405 x 18mm Timber Multi Use Pine Panel for the top and bottom of the box. It could be cut into two equal-sized panels that are 600x405.
You could then join them together with 140 x 19mm DAR and timber screws to create a box.
You would then mount the inside part of a Goliath Standard Drawer Slide Pair to the box.
You would then mount two side panels to the underside of the desk using angle brackets and mount the outer part of the slides to these panels.
This would create a functional keyboard tray that you could attach to the underside of your desk.
Unfortunately, due to limitations in materials, it is much bulkier than some prefabricated trays, and to create rigidity, it likely needs to have a top.
If you see any issues or would like to suggest improvements, please let me know so I can make alterations to the render.
Let me know what you think.
Jacob
Thank you so much @JacobZ . That was very detailed answer. Initially I was looking something like a tray I attached below. But you gave me a nice idea by using two side panels to mount the rails. My question is why do we need a box? Can't we simply attach the rails to a wood panel?
Hi @hungrymind,
The main reason I thought a box would be better is because of the side panels, which I added because drawer slides are usually around 45-50mm thick, and I didn't think it would be great to just mount them to the side of a 19mm thick panel.
In hindsight, you could just screw a piece of 42 x 42mm DAR General Purpose Pine to the side of the tray and do away with the box shape.
Now that I've seen what you are looking at, I think something like this would be more suitable.
You could attach another piece of 42x42 to some angle brackets like these Carinya 75 x 50mm Zinc Plated Angle Brackets, then attach your slides to the 42x42 on each side.
Let me know what you think.
Jacob
