Industrial Desk DIY

First off, this is not really a DIY tutorial. There are no measurements and there certainly is no plan. But here is how you construct an industrial-style desk in one afternoon.

For the desk:

1. Purchase one 1x18x72 pine board from Lowe’s. It’s about 20 bucks.
2. Find the halfway point and cut to form two equal pieces. This will be your desk top and desk bottom.
3. Find some old 1×4’s from an unfinished project lying in your garage.
4. Line them up with the desk top, use a pencil to mark, cut.
5. Do step #4 3 times.
6. Sand with coarse grit. Sand with fine grit. Most importantly, just sand until you can’t sand anymore. Smile as you proudly run your hands over your super smooth lumber.
7. Try to use liquid nails to hold the thing together. Realize you have to feed your kids and you don’t have time for this to dry. Cuss a little.
8. Assemble with screws instead. Use countersink bit and cover with wood filler that has obviously gone bad. Get mad because you should have bought that Kreg jig.
9. Condition. Stain*.

For the legs:

1. Purchase (4) 3/4″ x 24″ plumbing pipes, (4) 3/4″ floor flanges and (4) 3/4″ caps
2. Spray paint them using Rustoleum Metallic Flat Black.
3. Attach to the desk top using black #12 3/4″ screws.

This was a quick and dirty project that was built out of necessity. I’ve been really wanting to carve out time to focus on growing my business, but I’m having a hard time focusing because I’m literally all over the place – at the kitchen table, on the sofa using a pillow as a desk, in the carpool lane. So I wanted to make a space that would force my brain to say YOU ARE AT WORK NOW but my go-to spots let me down in my desk search. I spent about $100 on the desk and the chair** and I’m pretty dang happy with it. Let me know if you have any questions about this incredibly thorough guide to furniture-building and I’m happy to answer them.

*I really recommend staining this project BEFORE assembling. It’s almost always the better option, but for some reason I always feel like I’m saving time by staining after assembly.

**The chair was purchased from Hobby Lobby and it was on clearance which is the only way I ever purchase Hobby Lobby furniture. I felt like the legs looked funny next to the desk stain so I spray painted them.

SaveSave