DIY Wood Desk - At Home With The Barkers

DIY wood desk build to fit into any home, dorm or apartment. This post will show you how to build your own desk. Whether you are working or leaning from home, this desk will work great.

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This year we decided to build a desk for our college age daughter. Keeping it simple was our goal. It is a table style DIY wood desk.

We didn’t want to add drawers because most of us have a tendency to just cram things in them. Not having drawers allowed us to keep the cost and build time down too. Win win.

I took inspiration from this desk at Pottery Barn. Wood top with metal look wood legs.

Overall desk dimensions 24 deep, 60 long, 31 tall

Whether you’re working from home, virtual learning, or need to sit to pay the bills, this is a great desk option. Read on to see how we built this one.

Supplies for desk build:

Birch plywood 4 foot wide, 8 foot long, 3/4 inch thick
4 2×3 pine boards
Birch edge banding
Wood glue
Miter saw (currently on sale)
Nail gun
Kreg jig
Square
Stain (used gel stain I had on hand but you can use what you like)
Polycrylic (we used satin)
Sanding block (220 for birch, 120-150 for legs)
black paint

I estimate this desk cost around $75 in material. We didn’t waste the leftover birch. We are using it for a closet makeover.

Wood cuts for desk build:

Desk top (birch plywood)

birch top 24×60
birch strips: 2 (1 1/2×60) 2 (1 1/2×24) This is to double up the width of the tabletop in appearance only without adding lots of weight to the desk
birch plywood is semi-soft wood so be careful when you cut it, it can leave marks if you drag it around on something rough

Desk legs and apron (pine 2×3)

Leg length 4- 30 1/4
apron boards: 2 (50 3/4) 2 (12 3/4)

Assemble desk:

Take birch desk top and flip over so the bottom is facing up. Both sides of the wood look similar. You decide which side you prefer for top. Add the birch strips you cut to create a frame around the entire desk bottom.Wood glue first then tack in place with nail gun.

**ALWAYS make sure your nails aren’t too long. The last thing you want to happen is for a nail to come all the way through your wood.

*Pre-drill pocket holes for the apron and legs

Next layer in your pine 2×3 aprons and desk legs. Line up your aprons to the birch strip frames. We added the longest aprons first, then legs, and lastly the short side aprons.

**Be sure everything is squared up with this tool.

Stain and Painting the desk:

This is the part that is up to you. I wanted the stain top and metal bottom look. I used a gel stain on the top. Using the wipe on, immediately wipe off technique, I was able to get the shade I like.

By painting the legs black I was able to achieve the metal look. Real metal legs would have been very expensive. Lots of options for black paint but I went with one of my tried and true shades, in a sample container. The color I chose was Tricorn.

HELPFUL TIPS:

Polyurethane yellows over time because it is oil based. I use Polycrylic which is water based therefore doesn’t yellow.
You can buy a fine tooth blade to make smoother cuts on your wood but for this small project I was fine with a quick sanding. If you do however have a fine tooth blade, use that. We used a construction blade on our miter saw. That is why I had some rougher edges.
Give appearance of thicker wood by adding wood strips to the sides of the desk without the extra weight.