Has anyone made a corner desk?

[Federico Mena Quintero]

I'm about to build a real desk to replace the Office Depot piece of crap that I have had for far too long now.

It will go in a corner, and I'm wondering how to make the corner part of the surface.

I can just miter the two parts of the L together, and join them with a spline.

What if I wanted a rounded inside corner - would you glue two "extensions" to the desk's surface so that they are joined at the same miter as the other two parts? I.e. the L is mitered as usual, and the inside curve is made from two symmetrical parts, again mitered together.

If I wanted to make my life hard and make the corner a third section (joined to the two sides of the L with two respective splines) - so as to make the grain "turn" less abruptly - would I need to miter it at 22.5 degrees to each side so that the wood's movement is equal between the corner piece and the side pieces?

[Tony Wilkins]

I haven't but my wife wants one so I'll be watching what you find out ;)

[Sean Hughto]

long grain glue ups perpendicular to the 45 degree line that would bisect the 90 degree corner - glue as many as you like together of any length and then cut whatever shape you like for the part you sit at.

[Federico Mena Quintero]

Thanks, Sean; that did seem like the easiest thing.

[Brian Holcombe]

If you make the top from solid wood you have to mindful of the wood movement across the grain. Joining at 90 degrees would not be advisable unless you allow the joint to float.

I helped my father build a very simple, but very large built in corner desk and chose hardwood plywood for ease of installation and stability.

a simple miter is a very weak joint, so I would certainly suggest either a spline or tongue and groove.

[Brian AdamsMS]

Here is one of my first 'neanderthal' projects. This was made about 10 years ago, my family and I moved and had a year-long stay in an apartment while all my power tools were in storage. It may not be a corner desk, but it was purposely designed to fit in a corner. The wood is spalted-something-or-other (pulled from some old pallets).
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[Federico Mena Quintero]

Nice fan, Brian! It is worth considering for the desk, although I'll need the wings to float with respect to the fan. Who knows, I can probably draw some marks on the joint and use them as a humidity gauge built into the desk...

[Pat Barry]

Hey frederico, What are the dimensions for the L shape that you are planning? Ie each surface is 24" deep and each wing is 54" long?

[Pat Barry]

You got me thinking that something like this may be interesting. No miter issues, all long grain glue ups. Only thing is there is end grain showing on the inner edges. I don't think that would bother me a bit especially if the grain was interesting.
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[Federico Mena Quintero]

What are the dimensions for the L shape that you are planning? Ie each surface is 24" deep and each wing is 54" long?

You got me thinking that something like this may be interesting. No miter issues, all long grain glue ups. Only thing is there is end grain showing on the inner edges. I don't think that would bother me a bit especially if the grain was interesting.


Yeah, each wing is about 24" wide and about 60" long, minus the corner. I'll end up using a story stick, because "from the wall to just short of the power outlet, and from the other wall to the filing cabinet" *is* an issue :)

Thanks for the idea! I like the continuous grain on your scheme, but I don't know if I'd have the patience to glue it all up. Maybe just for the corner, and make the corner-to-wing miters at the appropriate angle for equal grain coverage...

Actually, yes, that's what I'll do. From the chair's viewpoint, the grain will always run from left to right, more or less.

[Alan Caro]

Federico Mena Qunitero,

Sorry! Instead of answering your joinery question, here is a lazy and incomplete idea for a corner desk that fits the space- two sides of 5' length and 2' deep- that you mentioned. But, not to worry, instead of one, there are a dozen difficult joinery problems unsolved!

The problem with corner desks is being able to use the volume that gets buried in the corner. My idea is that it's better to sit at a 45 degree angle- right into the corner and that allows the wings to have a stack of drawers that face in. The deep corner can have a storage cabinet under and the corner cabinet may be duplicated above the desk top to create a set of shelves. The extended cabinet then, in effect, fills the corner and softens the space.

There is mostly style neutral to make it more adaptable, but my thought is to steer it towards Craftsman / Mission. The book shelf component could stand a better design at the top (I was thinking of a pediment with a built-in clock) and the sides where the lights are shown might be paneled. The shelves could also have a pair of doors with glass.

Anyway, pictures are worth the proverbial >

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You can see that I didn't show the drawers and other minor details!



Alan Caro

[Bruce Haugen]

You got me thinking that something like this may be interesting. No miter issues, all long grain glue ups. Only thing is there is end grain showing on the inner edges. I don't think that would bother me a bit especially if the grain was interesting.
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I had come to that same exact conclusion on a corner unit I was making for my wife until she changed her mind on the style.

[Zach Dillinger]

I haven't made a corner desk, but I have made things that fit in corners. One word of advice: make the included angle of the piece slightly more than 90 degrees. This will allow a tight fit where the front edges meet the wall regardless of how square the corner actually is. I've always lived in old houses (most recently an 1870-built house and a 1900 built house) and the corners are rarely square.

[Federico Mena Quintero]

The problem with corner desks is being able to use the volume that gets buried in the corner. My idea is that it's better to sit at a 45 degree angle- right into the corner and that allows the wings to have a stack of drawers that face in. The deep corner can have a storage cabinet under and the corner cabinet may be duplicated above the desk top to create a set of shelves. The extended cabinet then, in effect, fills the corner and softens the space.

Man, I should do this more often - ask vaguely about a piece of furniture, and get superb 3D renderings in return :) Thank you! I am definitely going to use ideas from your drawing.

This is the setup I have right now:

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That's two crappy desks put in an L configuration. What bothers me most (apart from the human-unfriendly materials) is the leg assembly in the middle, and of course that the resulting wings are not the same length. And not having drawers. That wooden table with wheels that you see in the picture will go away, and the desk will extend to where it is.

I do like your idea of having cabinets on the bottom, especially to hide the CPU towers - and hopefully make them quieter; these "quiet fans" are not as quiet as I'd like. I was thinking of building some sort of L-shaped trestle-like base. I do like the empty space below the desk; I roll my chair a lot and switch between computers, so not bumping into things is important for me. However, the cabinets to hide the computers look very attractive.

I'll probably have a single row of shallow drawers directly below the desk's surface, just for papers and pencils.

Instead of a bookshelf component, the very back of the desk will have some sort of raised stop to keep things from falling between the desk and the wall. I do want to have a few grommets or trap doors along the back of the desk, and a way to route cables neatly without having them hang about. I can probably hide them in a long skinny "box" behind the drawers.

As a separate thing, I am currently building a wall cabinet which will hang on the right side of that window, so there's no need for a cabinet unit integrated with the desk. That wall cabinet is for all the random crap that usually clutters my desk - camera, lenses, cables, chargers, squares, compasses, batteries...

Again, thanks for the renderings. They will be very useful when planning this beast.

[Federico Mena Quintero]

I haven't made a corner desk, but I have made things that fit in corners. One word of advice: make the included angle of the piece slightly more than 90 degrees. This will allow a tight fit where the front edges meet the wall regardless of how square the corner actually is. I've always lived in old houses (most recently an 1870-built house and a 1900 built house) and the corners are rarely square.

Thanks, that's a great idea. I've made a couple of corner shelves, and they are indeed fussy to fit.

[Brian AdamsMS]

I do like the empty space below the desk; I roll my chair a lot and switch between computers, so not bumping into things is important for me.

Unrelated to the construction itself, At work I have three PC's at my desk for working in different networks. We use a 'KVM' switch (Keyboard/Video/Monitor) that lets you connect multiple PC's to a single keyboard/monitor and switch between which PC you are controlling. It really helps un-clutter a desk and opens up a lot of counter space without multiple monitors and keyboards in the way. They sell pretty cheap at electronic outlets.

[Federico Mena Quintero]

Unrelated to the construction itself, At work I have three PC's at my desk for working in different networks. We use a 'KVM' switch (Keyboard/Video/Monitor) that lets you connect multiple PC's to a single keyboard/monitor and switch between which PC you are controlling.

KVMs are nice, but I'm afraid they wouldn't work for me. I often need to look at something while I debug it from another computer, so I do need multiple displays and mice/keyboards.

[Alan Caro]

Federico,

Sorry! I completely missed the window component in the layout.

I spend more time at my desks than anywhere else and they are essential to have right.- I have a drafting desk and computer desk which are side by side 5' tables and a file layout table behind and I like to have everything at hand. I use reference books quite often and have a lot of CD's about.

Your point about CPU noise is an important one. At the moment I have a Dell Precision T5400 and HP z420 on a KVM switch, and fortunately these are workstations that are relatively quiet as I listen to music almost all the time. I notice that in the computer hardware world there is an increasing emphasis on the noise- even power supplies have dB ratings.

But, yes, I was thinking that in the symmetrical design each wing could have a drawer at the top and CPU cabinet below. The sides could have outside air intake grilles that could then vent at the back, so the noise is not steered towards the seating position. I was also thinking of a design that raised the CPU up a bit and the inset cabinet kick rail was the air intake- also venting at the back- a clean design and should be quieter because of the route the air takes. Also, another very good point about considering the cobweb of cables- I had a session where I spent a couple of hours routing everything and typing them in bundles about 3'- but of course, it makes changes a fuss.

It's a good project> desk design is both an interest- and difficult. I'd be interested to see what you eventually decide to do.

Alan Caro