![]() We then secured the perimeter with clamps before driving in screws. This matched the cabinet depth perfectly.įold the two plywood sheets together and align their edges. This allowed us to rip the sheet right down the middle and have a top that was 24 inches wide. Our sheet measured 48-3/4 inches wide and 97 inches long (a typical sheet of plywood is 48 inches wide by 96 inches long). The plywood sheet we used to make the top was a higher-grade material than you will find in a home center. Some of the other materials you might consider are butcher block, MDF panels, and tongue and groove flooring. Deliberate staining and finishing accentuated that look.Īlternatives: If it’s flat and has the correct dimensions, it can be a desktop. Look: Harkening back to the mid-century modern influence and embracing the exposed plywood layers was the look I was after. The longer you go past 8 feet, the more complicated your options. Length: Keeping the entire desk assembly under 8 feet allows a wide array of standard-length sheet good options. Ripping the sheet in half and laminating the two pieces together for a 1-1/2-inch-thick top is highly attractive and cost-effective. ![]() Price: This 3/4-inch 4x8 sheet of furniture grade plywood (A1 Oak, $100) had a near-finished face when we picked it up. In the spirit of taking matters into my own hands, what serves as the desktop surface can is fully customizable. I went back to the sketchbook and collaborated with colleague Roy Berendsohn in bringing Popular Mechanics an updated Version 2.0 of the Ikea desk hack. I wanted a smoother and more consistent surface, and I wanted a better arrangement of its storage space. The original desk used oak flooring as the work top. But there were aspects of it that I knew I could improve. Maybe those goals were contradictory, but I built a prototype of the desk I designed and used it daily for the last three years. I’m not a woodworker, so it needed to be simple to build and affordable. And it was equally important to me that the desk had to be a nice piece of furniture, something worth sitting at each day. I took its inspiration from mid-century modern credenzas, but under the hood I wanted it to have all the high-tech considerations necessary for the work I do as a digital designer. In my sketchbook, I designed a piece of furniture using Ikea components and lumber. The problem was that finding a piece of furniture to suit my needs and budget was impossible. The future of office-based work looked doubtful. I was a college senior as the pandemic closed the world down in 2020, but by then I already knew I would be spending a lot of time at a desk, probably at home.
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