DIY Desk

Yes, this old chestnut.

Going to make a desk - I've seen a lot of people using kitchen worktops and legs, usually from IKEA (e.g. their Numerar one). Cool - I need something about 60-65cm deep and around 140cm wide, plus a monitor riser shelf thing (shelf/off-cut + Capita legs).

Ignoring the fact that I've found solid wooden worktops cheaper than IKEAs, do you lot think it's worth forking out the extra for the solid wood stuff (about £85 delivered atm and I'd have to cut/profile/oil it myself). Saying that, unless I'm blind, 90% of the laminate worktops I would have thought would be way cheaper... aren't, really, unless you count really plain/black white stuff or IKEAs ones, although their delivery costs are mad and I'm not sure I could fit one in the car. Maybe I'm missing something obvious.

Wouldn't mind it matching the rest of my room too (lots of medium shade pine).

I guess the other thing would be maintenance - I'd rather have something durable that doesn't need loads of care, and also it has to support a fair bit of weight, at least at the sides (heavy nearfield monitors). I plan on using the fixed metal legs IKEA do atm.

Any input appreciated, cheers.

Altho pricey I think block wood worktops look fantastic
Is it to go in an alcove? Possibly secure it to the wall at all sides?

Most places will do you a few straight cuts free I thought?
Proper depth worktop will support yer PC and gubbins fine, just make sure legs/mounts are in the right places.

I once had one with 2x 19" CRTs in the middle and forgot to put a leg in the middle, ended up a little bowed lol, but they were immensely heavy screens

Yeah the solid ones look nice, it's just I'd prefer to get this done as cheaply as possible but as strong as possible. I managed to get an office-reclaimed Steelcase Leap (V2) off the bay for a decent price so I have something to sit on so far but I'm still faffing with this.

I'd prefer it to be free-standing (i.e. just unscrew the legs and I'm good to flat-pack it when moving). and while I've thought about a 5th leg in the middle, I doubt I'd need it since the heaviest things will be at the sides above the legs (speakers) and they'll only be my Mac in the middle.

E.g as an example - B&Q's 38mm worktops are £62 for the oak and the other wood ones are £85, and you have to buy edge strips... may as well get the real wood one.

I'm thinking the IKEA ADILS legs as they're cheap and cheerful at £2.50 per leg but steel and rated to 50kg each and the Signum cable management, so for a shade over £100 I guess I can't complain.

Remember to check bargain corner in Ikea
Also eBay, I got a set of 4 leg and the black glass desk for like £26 or something.
Just sort by distance and you tend to find all sorts of stuff people cba to ship

Yeah I've had a look on eBay for off-cuts and things. Do IKEA cut down stuff for you in store? I can't fit much in the car length-wise - the idea is to get roughly 2m of board, have it cut to 140cm, then cut the remaining 60cm or so into 2 x 30x60-65cm pieces, one of which I'm using with the Capita legs as a monitor riser (Mac and DAC going underneath) and one I'll use for a shelf or something.

Found a couple on eBay I'd missed, as it goes... one is an unused Bushboard cherry laminate worktop and it's only £15 at the moment but... I just like the idea of real wood lol. Trying to decide if it's worth splashing out on the Sjunne legs (or the Godvin) over the plainer Adils but they're a tenner each vs £2.50 lol. Urgh decisions.

I'd go with the solid wood. The last desk i made 1.5m x 600mm cost me 19 quid. That was for the 100mm stainless legs and the laminated 25mm birch ply top. Obviously i got it all at cost and laminated the desk myself. Much better than the ones costing over 100 quid.

Helps when you have access to all the equipment and materials I also made 12m of postformed kitchen work tops for 70 quid during my lunch as well

All Ikea have a area for damaged, return items at reduced prices, I got a pair of CAPITA brackets cost me £5, & a 2.5mt LAGAN worktop for £35, just had a few nibbles along back edge, from Bristol Ikea.

I'm looking at these legs atm, as they're a bit cheaper than the IKEA ones, although I want to find out the weight rating.

Also very annoyed - my Steelcase Leap chair arrived today and after I'd inspected it, I found one of the adjustments - the slider that changes the height of the lower lumbar curvature - is missing. So much for 'every function working perfectly'. Sighhhh. Going to order the worktop in wood though, just need to do some edge profiling, stain it a bit darker and seal it.

Real wood. You'll be thankful in a few years when it isn't all tatty, and if it is just sand it back and re treat it

Yep, going to order the rustic beech worktop - at £85 delivered it's the cheapest I could find. I can get regular beech for £93 (only difference is 3cm more depth - 65cm vs 62cm) and then for other woods like iroko, oak or bamboo it starts going up more and more.

Should just stick to beech and stain it so it's somewhat similar to the rest of the wood in my room.

Vexed about the chair - it was their last one as well, so I can return it but I'll find to find another one. Hmph.

K ordered the wood worktop. Also ordered the legs, Capita legs for the monitor riser and Signum cable management thingy.

Just need to sort out the bleedin' chair. No more V2s on eBay bar the expensive leather ones and one blue one (horrible colour!)... there's a few Aerons available (I'd be size B) but I frequently read the Leap is better, unless you want to fork out muchos cashios for an Embody.

Need to grab some stain for the beech too, although a few coats of oil might darken it sufficiently anyway.

Right sorted the chair out, worktop coming Weds, should have the legs before then, IKEA stuff on the 20th or therebouts. Excellent. Btw if anyone else is looking for a chair, Iconic Office Furniture (who I got my Leap 2 off) have got another 20 of them up on eBay. The Aerons seem to have had a price hike in terms of the used ones because of the name more than anything, I think, and many people think the Leap is a better chair. I did have an IKEA Markus a while back but being a short-arse the headrest was too high and it wasn't very adjustable - the Leap is much nicer!

Wondering what to do with the worktop/desk in terms of oil/stain/seal etc. Any advice welcome! The main thing is I don't plan on either cutting or having liquids on it, and beech being light I'd like to darken it somewhat to something of a more medium finish...

Worktop and legs came the other day:




Not worried about it under load, it's a heavyweight itself! Plan is to cut it down Monday, round the edges and screw the plates for the legs in, then take them off, do my night shifts for the week and then dye + oil it. My IKEA delivery is due today with the Signum cable management and capita legs so should have all the hardware, just need to get the right colour dye and some decent oil.

IKEA delivery turned up, good stuff. Signum is bigger than I thought, but that's a good thing. Capita legs are nice and heavy for what they are. Looking forward to putting it all together...

Nice choice . I bought very similar legs (but black) and worktop from ebay and i couldn't be happier with the finished result. Chipboard furniture is a false economy as they wont last many years before they start to look ****.


I rounded the edge over with my router and then gave it about 3 coats of Danish oil. It's is very strong smelling stuff so i'd do it outside if you can. Also dilute the first coat 50/50 with white spirit to help it soak into the timber.

As for dye, I have always used the Rustins stuff and had no problems. Beech is notoriously hard to stain evenly, but as its made of blocks anyway it should look fine after a couple of coats. It does say that you can add the dye to the Danish oil, but I have never tried that. You could try it on an ofcutt to see what its like. It would certainly cut down on waiting times for each coat of stain and oil to dry.



EDIT: I need to get some cable management sorted out now . Was thinking of hanging a black plastic gutter from the worktop and laying the cables in that to keep them off the ground and out of site. Maybe even drill a hole in the top of the desk for the cables to go up to the pc and monitor.

Yes mine basically looks like that - TopWorktops or something on the bay. I went out and got screws today, and ended up getting the rest of the stuff. I'll have an off cut to test with but the plan is 1-2 coats of dye (might not be dark enough with a single coat but better to start light) on the top and sides, leave the bottom as there's no point, then oil the whole thing. Won't be done for at least a week though as I'm working 3 days from tomorrow, then Monday night I'm on nights for 3 nights so Thursday will be a write-off. Still, getting there slowly.

The rest of the stuff in my room is a kind of medium shade pine so I'm hoping to get a reasonably close-ish match.

I have thought about getting a hole saw and getting the grommets to go with the Signum trunking, but it can wait for now. Hopefully I can get the power strip and pretty much all the cables on the trunking so they'll only be one wire hanging down...

Quick preview - sawn, planed and screwed. Just need to finish the sides/top really.