The Super Desk

Started 9/19/2010  

The original desk and shelf I was using left a lot to be desired. The desk and electronic components blocked access to the downstairs window and the shelve were not making good use of the wall space and I had also never gotten around to finishing the wood. Now with the newly refinished wood floor throughout the house including the staircase it was time to fix up the shelve space.  
 
After much looking around at other peoples ideas at local open houses, online at places like lifehacker.com and thecoolhunter.net and on the TV with programs like This Old House and Hometime. After much thought I came up with a solution. I would combine the shelve and desk space and electronic into the same area and solve three problems at once.
   
I also have several large printers that I wanted to get out of the way so I needed to make measurements and take notes.  
 
The original design drawing and layout.
   
List to take to the home store.  
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Removed the existing shelf support brackets with one row of slots and replaced it with heavy duty ones with two rows of slots.  
 
 I needed to join three pieces of red oak boards in order to get the 26 inch width I needed for the desktop and upper shelf. I could reuse the original unfinished 12 foot boards I was using with the original shelves but I needed to by some more to extend the desktop and upper shelves. You can see my stereo projectors on the ceiling.
 
  I used a dowel centering jig I bought from Harbor Freight to join the boards together with 3/8 inch dowels.
   
 I need to glue and clamp the larger board in place as it was too big (14 feet) to be moving between the basement workshop or the garage. I also had to do things in stages so I could keep the computer up and running as well as the Tivo's for watching TV during the duration of the project.
   
 I used the shelves for work space while I worked on the lower and upper shelves.  
 
Again I had to do the finishing in place for the desk as it was too big to move anywhere. I added some table legs on either side for the little end pieces that stick out. I purchased some new desk chairs from overstock.com and they came in handy to do the although they did get a little dusty in the process. These seem to be the best chairs for the bargain based on various reviews I found online.  
 
 Once the desktop was finished I could move the computer over. I will repurpose the old desk for my wife to use at the local school where she works.
   
 I also moved my son's computer over to the desk so he can use the other side.
   
Originally I was going to put the electronic components in the corner but I decided it would look and work better in the middle. I bought two Tripp Lite 4 foot power strips to run up the middle so I wouldn't have to worry about not have enough power plugs for all the wall wart plugs. I also bought a longer 6 foot power strip to put under the desk. The cable for the projectors would also not need to run as far.
    
So I decided to cut the big upper shelve in half to accommodate this change.
   
Now it's time for staining and finishing, it took two days to complete. It was hard to control drips on all the boards at once and keep everything moving but it's good enough. I put the problem areas in the back so they wouldn't show. Finishing consisted of staining with Cabot dark walnut, followed by Varathane one step stain and polyurethane in red mahogany and early american.
  
I needed some more boards to complete the shelves underneath the desk. I will get to finishing them later. I picked up a couple of rounded leather desk blotters for the corners on each side. They are made of metal so you do not need to support them underneath and it adds some desktop space right where you need it for the computer keyboards. I would have had to cut much larger pieces of wood to make curves like that for the desktop instead I could just extend the desktop with easy to cut rectangular pieces.
 
I used some under cabinet lighting I had from Ikea and some cable management strips to clean up the wiring. I also used some photo hanging wires behind the lights to be used to hang photos and poster prints. They can be slide back and forth to get access to the shelves behind and hide some of the mess that might be present on the shelves. I still have a big cable management job for the electronic components ahead of me but I have plenty of cable ties and cable wraps.    
 I installed some Ikea under cabinet LED lighting so I can see what I am doing under the desk.  I also installed some cable trays under the desk to keep the cables off the floor. Originally I was going to put the big printer on the upper large shelve but it was just to big to feel safe so I put in on a larger shelf underneath the desk instead.  
 
After several hours of cable management the electronic components are useable on the shelves.
    

Here are things pretty much complete. I still need to finish some of the shelves under the desk and the table legs need to be attached as well but I will wait until I get a chance to re-carpet the floor downstairs before attaching them.
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