Long desk or ?

[Stompy]

Hi guys,
In an attempt to make myself more efficient, I am looking to change my desk in my room. At the moment I have an argos corner desk jobbie, which has suffered alot of abuse but is pretty poor really. It's the sort of thing that looks really good in the pictures with it's trays, shelves, drawers, cubby holes etc., but once you start using it you realise there isn't actually any room to work on it.

So, what I want is a long, flat desk. In fact I want it very long, to cover one entire wall of the room, which is 3.5-4m wide, and possibly go round the corner a little bit at one end. But I can't work out the best way of doing this. I have seen some office desks that are the style I want (long and plain) but they seem to be stupidly expensive (£400+) for what you get.

I thought of doing it using a kitchen worktop in beech, which would be very cheap but not sure as to how to support it, since obviously kitchen worktops are usually supported by the units underneath.

Any ideas?

[IBM]

a worktop/surface with a couple of simple box frames would do the trick. Easy to put together and costs practically nothing in terms of materials...working wall to wall is going to make it easier as you can fix the two flanking supports to the wall instead of freestanding...

[Stompy]

Sorry I'm a bit stupid.... Box frames?

Thanks

[IBM]

lol

it's actually not a box frame, 'cause that would give you a 3D shape, it's just four pieces of wood (2x4) nailed together to create a square. You then place one of these against each end wall and attach them to it with screws. Then place the work surface on top of them (make sure you've cut it to the right length). You probably need a third frame for the middle of the surface to prevent sag, but as long as you've put them together okay, should suffice.

[Tumble]

We've done the worktop thing - handy as our back room is precisely 3m long, and your worktop comes in 3m lengths

cost £25 for a slightly shop soile d length of worktop, and about £40 for about 20 metres of 2"x2" timber. Took about half a day to knock a frame up and bolt the worktop on.

Super desk, and it'll take standing on to change the light bulb as well

[Stompy]

Sounds good, thanks alot guys

[Funkstar]

I'm going to be re-doing the study at my parents and getting rid of the "computer station" that they currently use. It is pretty well built, it was from John Lewis a number of years ago, but it is still a poor design, just like the rest of them.

Me and dad will be puting in solid wook kitchen worktops, probably with wall brackets instead of legs. There is also going to be enough space for mum jewelery making.

Thats all much better value that office desks

[Theo]

If you want something that doesn't actually look like a kitchen work top, www.viking-direct.co.uk have a bunch of office-standard desks. The missus and I both have one each, and we couldn't be happier.

We have something like this, but it was cheaper:

http://www.viking-direct.co.uk/catal...H35&pr=H24&N=6

[steve threlfall]

Hi guys,
In an attempt to make myself more efficient, I am looking to change my desk in my room. At the moment I have an argos corner desk jobbie, which has suffered alot of abuse but is pretty poor really. It's the sort of thing that looks really good in the pictures with it's trays, shelves, drawers, cubby holes etc., but once you start using it you realise there isn't actually any room to work on it.

So, what I want is a long, flat desk. In fact I want it very long, to cover one entire wall of the room, which is 3.5-4m wide, and possibly go round the corner a little bit at one end. But I can't work out the best way of doing this. I have seen some office desks that are the style I want (long and plain) but they seem to be stupidly expensive (£400+) for what you get.

I thought of doing it using a kitchen worktop in beech, which would be very cheap but not sure as to how to support it, since obviously kitchen worktops are usually supported by the units underneath.

Any ideas?

I think i did the exact same thing as you. The corner desk i got from Argos took up loads of floor space and offered virtually no work space. I have just replaced it with something from ikea.

4 legs about £2 each and a table top (you pick from a bunch of different sizes, 120cmx75cm is one iirc). Cheap, solid, loads of space and it looks very good too.

[Funkstar]

and they are easy to change if you move house or re-organise things.

I have one under my bed in bits right now

[JPreston]

I made my desk, it's bombproof. Seriously when the three-minute warning goes off, I'm hiding under that baby.

Didn't use kitchen worktop but nice planed and sanded pine board from wickes. It's supported by three (on each side, and the third makes the compartment for the PC) rectangles made from square planed wood, filled in by PTG floorboards battened top and bottom by smaller bits of wood. There's a floor shelf for the PC to sit on, and a shelf above that for router and cable modem. The rectangles are fixed to the underside of the tabletop with assembly blocks, and for stability I have a third length of timber connecting the three on the floor at the back (along the skirting board), and some steel ties crossing the back of the whole thing to hold it perfectly rigid and to tie cables to. I've fixed the six-point power surge protector to the underside of the top at the back, so no cables are visible.

Hhhmmm. Tricky to explain, and doesn't help that I can't remember any sizes. But I have a made-to-measure desk that is rock-solid and not even a bit wobbly, for probably around £50

[Nick F]

I think i did the exact same thing as you. The corner desk i got from Argos took up loads of floor space and offered virtually no work space. I have just replaced it with something from ikea.

4 legs about £2 each and a table top (you pick from a bunch of different sizes, 120cmx75cm is one iirc). Cheap, solid, loads of space and it looks very good too.

I went for that exact same desk Steve.




Cheap but does the job

[Tarffie]

I did the IKEA thing too, got an L shaped one that's a bit like what you described. It's not that wide, only about 5ft, but I remember you could get extensions and wider tops.

psuedo-edit: just found an old picture of mine on flickr



That's a 24" monitor for size comparisons. And it's from the Galant series.

Real edit: christ, that photo's nearly a year old now.

[Saracen]

Stompy, if you like the large and usually expensive office desks, you could do a lot worse than keep an eye on second-hand shops and even office clearance sales. I picked up an "executive" desk a few years ago in such a way. It was obviously used in that the wood wasn't that clean, crisp colour of a brand new desk, but it was unmarked, no scratches and polished up beautifully. It's nowhere near 3m long, but is nonetheless wide, deep, beautifully built and was no doubt very expensive when new. And it cost me £40 in an office clearance. The hardest part was getting it upstairs to my home office. Oh, and theres three draws in one side, and a standard filing cabinet (locking) on the other side, with slide out sections on both sides, one being a writing surface and the other being having an insert tray for coins, pens, paperclips, etc.

Alternatively, you mentioned being not sure how to support a work-surface over a long length. I built a worksurface into another room to use as a computer room. It goes right along one wall, turns 90 degrees and goes about 3m along another wall. I used solid wood worktop, but anything would do. Support comes from several different things.

1) Along the back of the wall a 2" x 1" batton is screwed to the wall. That supports the back, along the entire length of both walls.

2) At one point, I built a cupboard. It has a shelf midway, giving two storage areas, but the top of the cupboard and the door finish about 4" below the worktop level. The sides, however, are full height and the worktop sits on top of those (and is screwed down using connector blocks). That gives me a full cupboard width open-front drawer area directly under the worktop.

3) At the far end, I use a standard 2-drawer Bisley filing cabinet. I have a couple of lengths of wood planed to the correct height screwed to the underside of the worktop, which means that the worktop is directly supported by the steel filing cabinet.

4) At a couple of other points, I have a support arm made up from wood. All I did was take two chunks of 2"x1" wood and connect them together at right angles, to form an L. Then I cut a groove into both arms of the L about 3/4 of the way along, and cut another piece of 2"x" to fit into the grooves. The third piece had both ends shaped to fit neatly into the grooves, giving a sort of triangular shape. So any downward force from the worktop transfers through the diagonal piece and is held into the down section of the arm by the shaped grooves. Then, the diagonal bit is screwed into both the horizontal and vertical bits. The effect is that the support is virtually invisible from the front, and gives the effect of a floating worktop.

5) At the far end of the section that isn't full-length of the way, I used a cut-off of the worktop itself, vertically. So there's a solid end support.

6) Finally, at the join where the worktop turns 90 degrees, I used half a dozen 2" wooden dowels, each about 3/8" thick. Drill holes in the front edge of piece one, where piece two will fit. Glue and insert the dowels half-length (i.e about 1" into the worktop). Drill holes in piece two at the right points, glue the dowels and connect the two pieces together.


The result of all that is that the worktop is supported along the entire back edge, and at both ends, and by the built-in cupboard and the steel filing cabinet, and by the "triangular" support arms. You could dance along it, it's so solid.

Exactly how you do this type of thing very much depends on what your room design is and what facilities you want in your room such as built-in storage. One option is to use heavy-duty drawer sliders inside a cupboard to build a shelf on which less-frequently used items can be kept out of sight when not in use. One friend has a laser printer hidden in a cupboard that way. It obviously needs to be heavy-duty sliders and a solidly built cupboard to support the weight, but it's perfectly possible. Another option is to have media storage facilities (like CD/DVD racks) built the same way, or built into an open design.

Personally, I advocate building as much in that can be hidden as possible. Apart from anything else, it reduces the dust-trap effect.

None of the above if difficult, by the way. My carpentry skills are, to say the least, minimal. It just takes some effort and a LOT of time ...... much of it in working out exactly what to do BEFORE you plug the power tools in.

[Nick]

I built one from 1" thick MDF.

Weighs a ton and is as solid as a brick outhouse.

However, if you're looking to go all along one wall and have no problems about attaching it to the wall, I'd go down the worktop route.

Battens in the wall at each end, a few battens along the back and the worktop can rest on that.

For that length you'll want some support along the front and any DIY store, such as B+Q, (cos I've seen them in there) sell lengths of metal tubing, meant as corner or edge supports for worktops.

Here's the B+Q one:

http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav/na...=1176201626510

They do the sockets that you screw into the bottom of the worktop and slot the leg into... then either a plain foot or even a socket to screw it to the floor so it can't be moved.

I'd suggest making up a few small boxes to rest the PCs on, just to lift them off the floor and help reduce dust ingestion into the machine.

[abeacock]

Ikea was good for me, we have two standard straight desks (MIKAEL) next to each other with the 'on the top of the table' storage options as well. Works well, gives lots of room and looks top to boot.

Total cost for two desks and two table-top units was less than £150

Basic desk:
http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/store...roductId=11496

Storage unit that sits on top:
http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/store...roductId=58529