I found an awesome plan for a desk that had plenty of room to stash almost all of our things, plus some. I was so excited, and thinking about all the money we were going to save was even more exciting. So we went over the plan and customized it a little for ourselves and what we needed. Here is the link to the original:
Cubby Desk Plan.
Quick word about her site; it is the best! And I mean it. It totally makes you feel like you can do anything, and she empowers you with photos from other non-builder, normal, everyday people. Every plan has a run down of what you will need and how many of each. Check it out for sure!
Now, back to the desk buildin. We decided to do this at the beginning of the year, which may have been a bad idea. What should have taken only a few days to build, took us about a month. First due to the fact that it was terribly cold in our garage, and second because we had a blizzard. Now if Oklahoma didn't have such atrocious wind, the just being cold wouldn't have bothered me. I mean I grew up in Colorado, lived in Alaska once too, it's no biggy. I LOVE the cold , but not the wind pulling our garage door out and blowing straight onto us like an air conditioner that just had its freon replaced. And eventually when the blizzard blew in, we had to take a week hiatus because even 5 minutes in the garage was terrible. We even got a little bit of snow in there as well, with the door closed.
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| All the pieces laid out in the garage after cutting, it looks very intimidating. |
So we high tailed it to Home Depot and spent a total of 5 hours there. Yes, five hours. This could've been done easier then I made it, but I like to make things complicated sometimes I guess. First thing was pricing the wood, and finding the best pieces for the right price. We had a budget of $300, this was scary, but we turned out under budget for the wood, screws, and glue. We stood in front of the panels of wood for a few hours. I had the plans in hand and the measurements of everything. I drew out every cut on paper to minimize the need for overstock and spending too much. We had them cut it down to sizes that we could fit into our car, and finish the precise cuts at home. They were great about it too.I just labeled each piece with a letter and when he cut that board, I labeled it with the letter and number as well. We did have to purchase a jig saw and plug-in drill which brought us up to about $350.
Next we went step by step for each piece of the project. There was five large pieces all together that would have to fit and make only three large pieces once assembled. It is really a great way to spend some time together and word of advice, just have fun. We had music going and would periodically go in for something to drink and eat. We spent every minute we could on this thing until we were done.
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| The desk top and in the process of building the keyboard slider. |
The only thing we had trouble with was some of the wood warped because it was so cold, some of it shrank slightly and bent a little. But in the end it still has turned out great for us and you can't really tell. I am going to put one more coat of thick glossy paint on it, in the past year it looks like some of it soaked into the wood a little; But no biggy. I don't have a whole list of everything spent total, but it came out way cheaper than my dream desk that would have cost us a pretty penny of over a thousand for sure.
The desk finished in it's glory. The little pull on the front is actually a keyboard slider instead of a drawer. As well I found a wall mount for the monitor on sale so I could put it on the wall and save some room for the mouse and my tablet. Don't mind the fake wood floor piece, I used it for photography, but a great floor for the chair when not in use. There yah have it! I definitely recommend at least trying to build something once in your life, it is a very satisfying feeling getting to say " I built that!".
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