View Full Version : "Modded" my desk. About 90% complete. Looong post. Pics inside!
Afternoon all. I'm fairly new here, so I'm sure most of you have no idea who I am :). I have been planning on redoing my desk ever since I bought it. As of today I finally got a lot of it together and now need to put some finishing touches to it.
Some backstory. Found out the wife was pregnant. We have a 2 bedroom condo. The second bedroom was essentially my "man-den". Had my big screen, home theater, and computers. However now that has since become the nursery and every room in our condo has had to get redone to get ready for the baby.
Nursery before. Don't have a great before pic, so this is it spackled. (why not, pictures are fun)
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2290/2325033092_4093f91fdc_b.jpg
Nursery after. The stripes are all hand painted. Took my grandfather and I about 12 hours to complete. The wall on the right is the red wall you see in the before.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2347/2325033104_1413581a08_b.jpg
So since my man-den had been all baby'ed up, I was forced to bring my computers out to the living room. Given the space I was "allotted" I had to find a corner desk. My wife and I went to about 8 different furniture places and I couldn't find anything that fit and was what I was looking for. One night, perusing CraigsList in my area I saw someone selling a corner desk for $25 bucks. Measured up alright. Saw that it was structurally in decent shape (aesthetically it was quite worn), but for $25 bucks it was well worth it.
Here are a couple shots of the desk after I put my stuff on it. Make sure to note the front of the desk where the entire trim was so kindly removed. Also, apparently mousepads were optional on the right side. Then again if you look at my mouse, I had no room to place a decent pad on the left side either.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2319/2399030692_6ebb7f633a_b.jpg
Head on you will see the sea of cabling coming down from the desk. Also behind the monitor stand if you look close you will see that it was my router / modem dumping ground. Sea of wires and clutter.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2117/2399031900_86feed7380_b.jpg
Another head on shot. As you can see it was really close to our china cabinet.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2117/2399031900_86feed7380_b.jpg
Just a side note, the computer is actually the same terrible case I'm using for my Q6600, but for those pictures it was my AMD 4200x2 running 10.5.2. Hence the apple desktop.
From that point I was planning out how to make the desk not suck. I wanted something that would give me ample working desktop space, I wanted it to be as neat as possible, and less of a eye sore. First I debated building one from scratch. I started figuring out the plans and planning the project. Then it actually struck my grandfather that the one thing that is good shape on the desk the the actual flat top and the legs.
Well its a perfect starting point!
I wish I had actual "doing the work" pics. However honestly I really didn't even think about posting it at that time. After all the work, I then figured I might as well show it a little so I am sorry for the lack of work pictures.
I decided on going with a flat desk top with only a monitor stand attached to it. I hated all the other useless shelves on the desk so they all had to go. I decided to go with a Oak finish for the wood, since that has my favorite grain look. I picked up a 4x8 piece of 3/4 Oak veneered plywood. For those of you not familiar with it, it is essentially a 3/4 piece of plywood with the top and bottom finished with a thin layer of real oak.
Total cost of 4x8 plywood was ~65 compared to probably somewhere around 200 for a piece of solid oak and it stains identically. I decided to shorten up the left side of the desk 2 inches and extend the right side about a foot. This would give the desk some breathing room from the curio cabinet and some extra desk space on the right side.
Note to the unhitched readers... when your wife says you can have more space, you take it!
The one thing that really urked me about the original design of the desk is that the monitor stand stood over a foot from the back of the desk. Causing a ton of wasted space behind the monitor. I threw my modem and router there to try to justify the space. With the new desk design, I wanted the monitor shelf sucked up to the back of the desk. The stand was cut essentially from the leftover piece of the plywood. Along with the support for it.
Once all the pieces were cut, they were stained the same color as the woodwork in our condo. For the clear, water based varnish was used. 3 coats of varnish were applied with a light sanding after each coat to give the desk a nice smooth finish.
Now as you all know, the side of plywood is hideous. It shows all the layers of the wood pressed together unevenly. Pretty much not "good eats". To remedy this, I picked up solid oak door trim. This was perfect for covering the front edge of the desk. It's other function was to completely block out of site the old desktop that we would be mounting this new desktop to.
For the monitor stand, we used the same door trim, however trimmed it flush to the plywood since there was really no need to have the lip hang down.
Here's a shot of the top with lip placed over the desk. As you can tell the new desktop has a 2 inch overhang. This is where the front edging wore off on the old desktop as I pointed out in a earlier pic.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2222/2398182217_27648143bf_b.jpg
Here are some shots of the desktop as it is now fully installed.
Overhead shot of the desk. As you can tell, I am trying to go with the whole "less is more thing". On the desk I have my Razer Lachesis mouse , Saitek Eclipse keyboard, Zboard Fang, telephone, and my Wacom Tablet. On the monitor stand currently only the monitor is there, however speakers will be making their way up there shortly.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2040/2399010480_4147d38b1c_b.jpg
Wider angle
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3146/2399010872_66d656871b_b.jpg
Lower angle. You will start to see the lack of cables around. I will get into that shortly :). PS: Yes I know my baseboard has no cover. I have to install that this week. It was just put in prior to me painting and didn't have the correct covers for it yet. Yes also the room was painted before I put the desk in. /Wave hideous pink walls :bang head
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3219/2399011054_30bd6847df_b.jpg
Now to get to some of the goodies I put on the desk. Features if you will. Cut out some aluminum and made a bracket for my card reader. This will be taken down, straightened out a bit, and painted black. The wire hanging also will be properly routed under the monitor stand with 2 small hook screws. The USB cable is wired to the bottom port of the monitor (Dell 2005FPW, it has 4 usb ports. Two in the back & two on the sides).
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2312/2399011210_416c40be30_b.jpg
Trim / peripheral closeup. Keyboard and Fang are going to be taking a ride down dishwasher lane this weekend. I would have done it before mounting, but there are dirty dishes in there :P
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2164/2398181937_eaed4c6892_b.jpg
I call this cable management part 1. Underneath the desk by the corner of the wall, there is a mounted surge protector & a 8 port USB hub. The surge protector is being used by devices that need to be plugged in on or around the desk. Currently it's just the monitor, USB hub, and telephone. The USB hub is being used for anything connected to the desk. Currently its the keyboard, mouse, Fang, Wacom, and the Dell monitor (which if you remember currently has the card reader). This part is definitely part of the remaining 10%. Right now the cables are sorta just tossed there. They will all be mounted with proper hook screws, cable ties, and cable tacks.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3285/2398182087_091f288f4b_b.jpg
Another shot of underneath. Little farther out.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3022/2398180663_fba4ab14ec_b.jpg
USB hub up close, showing bracket... and messy cables. That will be fixed!
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2143/2399010258_2b88f5b764_b.jpg
Alright so now you have seen most of the desk. Naturally I have saved the best for last. I take absolutely no credit for this idea what-so-ever. I got the idea from www.lifehacker.com (excellent site, if you aren't familiar with it, certainly check it out) who got it from http://www.decluttered.com/. In the very first picture of the old layout desk you will see that the right legs had a opening and was actually a shelf. Well as I said before shelves can become a clutter magnet. Especially for myself so I decided to put together a version of the pegboard mounting for this project. The one flaw in my opinion for a lot of people posting pictures of their pegboard mounting is that they don't actually conceal their pegboard. So essentially it becomes viable mounted clutter in a slightly different place. The solution for this... take out the shelving (remember I used all the original legs / supports) and make a door!
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3095/2399035198_9de7440e69_b.jpg
The contents of the pegboard are:
Cable Modem
Wireless Router
Surge Protector
External hard drive
PC plug
Network cable routed out to desktop.
Phone cable coming out from cable modem out to top of desk for phone.
Two different blocks of wood, placed in there and secured down with 6 screws each to reinforce the extra weight from the longer top.
I think it came out good. This took a while to position everything.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3010/2399036554_bf99f74010_b.jpg
Of course, we need to add a little "flair" to it... with a LED light :) You can also see where the old top ended and where the new top extended.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2082/2399037204_2944db1f07_b.jpg
All together now.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2407/2399009900_2d7247abf3_b.jpg
Phew. Pretty much done. Don't say I didn't warn you that this would be long :). All in all it was a lot of fun to plan and put together. My grandfather and I did all of the work and it's been a really rewarding process, so I figured I'd share it with the community.
There are a couple more things I'd like to do and could perhaps use some suggestions. The cables coming from the peripherals & under desk plugs are going to get organized and properly cleaned up. The card reader bracket is going to be painted and the cable is going to be ran correct. My hideous NZXT Nemesis case will be getting replaced in the near future (next project upcoming... all I will say to that is its tentative name is "Stewiefish".
The only thing I am sort of stumped on is I have a 15 inch LCD that you saw in the original desk pictures that I have no idea what to do with. It doesn't match and looks like crap, but I love the 2nd monitor for secondary stuff such as iTunes, temp monitoring, etc. Any ideas how I can incorperate that into this desk would be a great help.
I was thinking a "floating drawer" in the center of the monitor stand. Somehow trimming it with the same oak finish as the desk, but have it fold out to a \ angle to reveal the monitor when being used. I'm not sure.
Well that's it. My first project mostly complete. Please comment on it, I'd love to hear what you guys think about it. I'd also love to hear what you guys hate or think should be changed about it!
On a parting note... the farewell shot.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3187/2398181343_d404612e32_b.jpg
Regards,
-Evo-
That is a very very nice job.
Neatness is not my thing :)
jmsanders2
04-08-08, 04:38 PM
Very nice job. Very functional- things out of the way but still accessible if you need to get to them. I like it a lot and I'll steal some of your ideas for my next computer desk :).
Very nice job. Very functional- things out of the way but still accessible if you need to get to them. I like it a lot and I'll steal some of your ideas for my next computer desk :).
Thanks for the kind words. Yeah I figured I'd move the stuff that I really don't need full access to at all times out of the way. Plus I forgot to note. That pegboard is actually held up with 4 wing nuts. So it takes about 20 seconds to remove that whole panel from the cabinet :)
gimpster123
04-08-08, 05:39 PM
nice work, i like the hidden router/modem idea
thats awesome.. i love how youv hidden everything.. my room is the complete opposite lol, everything is everywhere.
congratulations on your new addition to the family!
the colors.....meh....not my thing. The DESK! Just as I was going to reply with: "You could refinish that desk", I scroll down and saw it in its glory. That really looks very nice.
Jason Kitchens
04-08-08, 06:41 PM
Great work! It looks A thousand times better. I love that finish. Looks so clean. Keep it up!
Thanks all for the comments.
@noxqzs The wall color is actually a little off in the pictures. Its a bit more subtle and a little less diarrhea than the picture shows. If I just saw the color in the pictures above I'd think it looks horrible, however in person the color is pretty nice. Either way its a lot better than the pink that was in their prior :P.
Also no new addition yet. Still baking in the over. Her due date is June 13th. This is pre-baby prep time :0
jiggamanjb
04-08-08, 06:55 PM
NICE!! Love the door !!!!!!!!!
http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/bounce016.gif
burningcpu
04-08-08, 07:08 PM
The door is awesome. I should do something like that for my audio reciever/external harddrive/cable modem/router/equilizer mess.
dipspit
04-09-08, 05:13 PM
That's really an excellent job. I'm definitely going to steal some of your ideas as I am currently redoing my office as well. I like how clean and organized it looks, and I think that's one of the few south paw setups I've seen posted here.
Shiggity
04-09-08, 05:22 PM
Slick :cool:
Jolly-Swagman
04-10-08, 11:33 AM
Well done nice a tidy too
theELVISCERATOR
04-10-08, 12:00 PM
Nice job but I prefer my LCD on the wall mount, and OFF the desk...
http://www.ocforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=58741&d=1186590218
I was actually debating putting the LCD on the wall, however with it being in a corner I'd have to get one of those arm mounts to pivot it around to be straight on to my chair. I use those mounts @ work and I can't stand them here. If the desk was straight on to a wall, I would have had it mounted on the wall without question.
43longtime
04-10-08, 08:27 PM
Alright so now you have seen most of the desk. Naturally I have saved the best for last. I take absolutely no credit for this idea what-so-ever. I got the idea from www.lifehacker.com (excellent site, if you aren't familiar with it, certainly check it out) who got it from http://www.decluttered.com/. In the very first picture of the old layout desk you will see that the right legs had a opening and was actually a shelf. Well as I said before shelves can become a clutter magnet. Especially for myself so I decided to put together a version of the pegboard mounting for this project. The one flaw in my opinion for a lot of people posting pictures of their pegboard mounting is that they don't actually conceal their pegboard. So essentially it becomes viable mounted clutter in a slightly different place. The solution for this... take out the shelving (remember I used all the original legs / supports) and make a door!
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3095/2399035198_9de7440e69_b.jpg
The contents of the pegboard are:
Cable Modem
Wireless Router
Surge Protector
External hard drive
PC plug
Network cable routed out to desktop.
Phone cable coming out from cable modem out to top of desk for phone.
Two different blocks of wood, placed in there and secured down with 6 screws each to reinforce the extra weight from the longer top.
I think it came out good. This took a while to position everything.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3010/2399036554_bf99f74010_b.jpg
Of course, we need to add a little "flair" to it... with a LED light :) You can also see where the old top ended and where the new top extended.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2082/2399037204_2944db1f07_b.jpg
All together now.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2407/2399009900_2d7247abf3_b.jpg
Phew. Pretty much done. Don't say I didn't warn you that this would be long :). All in all it was a lot of fun to plan and put together. My grandfather and I did all of the work and it's been a really rewarding process, so I figured I'd share it with the community.
There are a couple more things I'd like to do and could perhaps use some suggestions. The cables coming from the peripherals & under desk plugs are going to get organized and properly cleaned up. The card reader bracket is going to be painted and the cable is going to be ran correct. My hideous NZXT Nemesis case will be getting replaced in the near future (next project upcoming... all I will say to that is its tentative name is "Stewiefish".
The only thing I am sort of stumped on is I have a 15 inch LCD that you saw in the original desk pictures that I have no idea what to do with. It doesn't match and looks like crap, but I love the 2nd monitor for secondary stuff such as iTunes, temp monitoring, etc. Any ideas how I can incorperate that into this desk would be a great help.
I was thinking a "floating drawer" in the center of the monitor stand. Somehow trimming it with the same oak finish as the desk, but have it fold out to a \ angle to reveal the monitor when being used. I'm not sure.
Well that's it. My first project mostly complete. Please comment on it, I'd love to hear what you guys think about it. I'd also love to hear what you guys hate or think should be changed about it!
On a parting note... the farewell shot.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3187/2398181343_d404612e32_b.jpg
Regards,
-Evo-
wow that came out nice.
Rudstock
04-11-08, 10:20 AM
Wow, that pegboard idea is genious! I'm gonna have to steal that...
Wow, that pegboard idea is genious! I'm gonna have to steal that...
Do it! Such a little amount of time and expense and it takes so much stuff off your desk!
IIRC Pegboard was ~5 bucks. Wingnuts, had laying around. Cable ties... cheap. Thats pretty much the entire cost of the project :)
ajrettke
04-11-08, 10:33 AM
Wow, that pegboard idea is genious! I'm gonna have to steal that...
Heh I was gonna post the exact same thing!
Oroka Sempai
04-11-08, 10:34 AM
If I had a wood desk, I would definally do something like your 'electrical trunk', but my desk is metal and glass.
If I had a wood desk, I would definally do something like your 'electrical trunk', but my desk is metal and glass.
Pish, do you have any sort of shelving on the bottom part of your desk like I did? If so, you could always just pull out a shelve and go right into it from there. If not, remember at most all you will need is 1 usb, 1 ethernet, 1 phone cable, and a power plug coming out. So technically you could put it anywhere near you desk / in your room.
Don't give up on the idea so soon!
ScottinIndy
04-11-08, 10:54 AM
Looks really nice and some good ideas to steal, I would use some of these to "clean" up the wire hanging down on the left side of your desk though.
http://www.doityourself.com/invt/u440886
I actually have a ton of those, along with some metal hook screws to pull up the cables. Like I said in the post, I still need to wire manage under the desk. Just haven't had the time yet. Should be done by this weekend. Essentially my goal is if you look @ the desk from nearly any angle you will not see 1 cable... except for the mouse / keyboard / etc going across the desk since there is really nothing I can do with those.
That setup looks great. If I wasn't using a college dorm desk or an appartment desk then I would definitely put the time into setting up something clean like this. The only difference is that my tower would probably up on the desk to the right against the wall so that I can see in the window. :)
Nice job.
That setup looks great. If I wasn't using a college dorm desk or an appartment desk then I would definitely put the time into setting up something clean like this. The only difference is that my tower would probably up on the desk to the right against the wall so that I can see in the window. :)
Nice job.
My friend, where there is a will... there is a way!
http://lifehacker.com/368409/pegboard-gadget-organizer-redux
Mount it under your desk. Since its a dorm desk just use something that is not that noticeable, like a single wing nut holding it up.
If you want take a pic and I'll try to come up with something to get you started... same goes to the person above w. glass & metal.
About the computer on the desk. That is where my eventual tower will go, however when you have a case as hideous as mine, you want it hidden. Hell if I wasn't making a digital media server and encoding all my dvd's to mp4's I'd have this tower against the back wall facing sideways so all I would see is black metal.
Once my "case-mod" project is complete, it will certainly be something I will put on my desk for all to see.
Cyrix_2k
04-11-08, 01:41 PM
love it.. I think you should try and consolidate the keyboard/mouse/numpad wires...maybe somekind of small hub will do the trick. I know a few keyboards have hubs built-in.
I was thinking about something like that, I have a zboard (wife got it as a gift a while back) but I hated it. If anyone can recommend a good keyboard with 2 usb ports I'd definitely consider it. I really like my Saitek, but would part ways with it if something close has usb ports :).
Just don't say the G15. I'm a lefty which is why I am using the Fang as my keyboard game pad. The G15 is useless to me, since my left hand is on the mouse I'll never use those macro buttons :)
chrispycrunch
04-17-08, 10:08 AM
very clean: i like how the wires are nicely organized and tucked away.
Sleepy_Steve
04-22-08, 06:06 PM
Nicely done!
Makes me want to re-do my desk at some point this summer.
Thanks :) It really wasn't all that much work. I think it took more time measuring everything than actually cutting and putting it together.
I've been pretty much working on the condo for the past couple weeks. Hope to put some finishing touches on the desk next week or so by mounting the 2nd monitor, cleaning up the remaining cables, and perhaps some lighting... and by lighting I mean legitimate lighting. Since the room went from ugly but brighter pink to dark brown the desk area is very dark @ night. Not enough light in the room so a recessed light might be a option.
We shall see, but I will post updates as they come.
Th3 F4ll3n P1mp
04-22-08, 08:13 PM
:drool: epic wire management man.
jellyrole
04-23-08, 07:21 PM
Great work! I also love the pegboard idea!!! But, that keyboard is the best thing you got going for ya!!! I have one too.
netmask
05-04-08, 01:45 PM
:drool: epic wire management man.
Yeah! Compared to my desk that's really great. Very neat also.
Heh thanks guys for the compliments. The keyboard is actually the dirtiest thing I have near my desk. Been hoping to get some time to take it apart and send its suzzy self through the dishwasher... however the wife has been working me like a donkey so the keyboard stays dirty. For now.
Albaholic
05-16-08, 12:53 PM
Wow, nice... super clean setup
MadMan007
05-16-08, 06:58 PM
Very nice looking. I have to wonder though what was the point of buying the desk in the first place? It almost seems like you replaced more than you used, maybe the used materials would still cost more though. Were you planning on actually using the bought desk but then just decided to replace most of it?
I bought the desk at first because honestly I went to about 8 different places and couldn't find anything to fit in the space that I needed it to. Just happened I found the desk for $25 on Craigslist. So I just picked it up as a temporary thing. Sort of happened quickly, because I had to move out of the "man den" to make room to start putting together the nursery.
I was actually going to build the entire desk from scratch, but then after looking at the desk it made for a perfectly fine base. The legs were sturdy and had the slot for the cabinet on the right side (it had shelving in it previously). So the whole framework was there, so I figured why fix it if its not broke. So yeah, I initially planned on using it for a 2 month temporary desk and wound up using it for me. Not a bad $25 investment.
Hope that answered your question :)
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