making your own desk

[Modern_Talking]

hello guys . . .
A suggestion or opinion is needed in putting the final touches on a console desk. .
I am building my own console desk. I have all the plans and everything in mind. Just waiting for a warmer temp to kick in to start the project . .

What I would like to know is, to make the desk look nice, what kind of finishing touch to use on the desk, besides that paint job kind of look.

Of course I will be making it out of wood as opposed to metal, but I would like the desk to look nice in the control room.

I don't want to piant it, cause I know it won;t look nice as opposed to adding formica or some kind of trims etc to the desk . . . or if anyone has some other ideas or pic to use as a starting point for me. . .
thanks.

 

[DREAMLABS]

A fast and easy solution to desk covering that most people (including myself) have used is the grey/black speaker cloth that you'd find on those live-sound speaker units. I've used it extensively, if not excessively in my own studio set up. I covered all the pieces with the material first before assembling the actual desk pieces. However in some cases you can assemble first and cover after. Just use some good old Contact Cement on the backof the fabric and on the wood surfaces, let them dry a bit and thenput them together. It looks really neat and turns your desktop surface into one gigantic mouse pad! Check it out!

 

[dgatwood]

The easiest way to build a desk that looks halfway decent is my handy twelve step program:

1. Build two boxes out of 2x2s. That means four pieces in a square on the ground, four pieces in a square on the top, and four verticals between them. (You may optionally add additional cross-bracing on two or three sides for added strength.)

2. Put paneling on three sides of each box.

3. On the remaining (open) face, put crossbars across between the two sides to divide the opening into about three pieces. This will serve as support for the front edge of the drawers.

4. On the inside of the sides, place additional sticks of wood that start just behind the front crossbars and go straight back to the back. These will be runners for the drawers. Note that these must be twice as thick as the corner verticals, as they will be against the outer paneling, but must stick in beyond the verticals to support the sides of the drawers.

5. For the drawers, cut two longer pieces of wood and two shorter ones, forming a rectangle. The shorter (width) pieces should be wide enough that the drawer cannot fall between the runners, but narrow enough to leave a small gap on either side. The longer (depth) pieces should be most of the depth of the enclosing box. These boards should be cut just slightly narrower than the height of the drawer openings on the front of the desk.

(Note: you could do all sorts of fancy keying of the drawer pieces to make them more sturdy, but this is usually unnecessary, as wood screws and wood glue usually work well enough for far less effort.)

6. Cut about a 1/4" wide groove all the way down the length of each of the drawer boards. This groove should be about a quarter inch in from what will be the inside, bottom edge of the boards

7. Cut a piece of Masonite(R) or similar so that when the boards are placed together to form the drawer, this piece forms the bottom by slipping into the four grooves.

8. Put a store-bought drawer face on the front (or any nice piece of finished wood with the edges beveled). Alternately, sand and varnish a thin piece of 1/8"-1/4" thick pine.

9. Fasten everything together with power screws and wood glue. Do not glue or screw the drawer face to the drawer.

10. Add handles to the front pieces. Use longer screws so that these hold the drawer face to the rest of the drawer.

11. Take a full sized, flat (not bevel-cut) interior door (prefinished). Place it across the tops of the two boxes. Trim or shim as needed to make it lie flat.

12. Insert the drawers. Use bar soap to grease the runners if they stick.

 

[Mindcore]

I went totally ghetto at first, I bought an old Kitchen Counter top for 20 bucks, found some legs at the same place for 5 and voila, my desk.

Here's an old pic, it's changed a hell of a lot since, ( for the better thankfully ) But at least you can see the blue formica in all it's splendor.