I had a set of book matched pieces of mesquite I started playing around with at Christmas (this is actually from the same log as the table I just finished). I figured I would make a desk. I didn't have much in mind so just winged it. The only things I knew I wanted was the front center panel of the desk to be removable/customizable.
I initially thought I would do raised panels, but didn't really feel like that worked too well with the idea, so I decided to veneer up a piece of mesquite in to 3/32" thick pieces, back it with some 1/4" ply and do the panels from that.
Resawing the veneers:
The desk mocked up without the front panel:
half blind dovetailed drawers.. because why not..
Hanging file folder drawer with lock. I didn't like how wide the drawers had to be to be symmetric and they took up too much space from the middle/knee room, so instead of drawer guides, I just did waxed runners and made the drawer run on those, that saved about 1" per side. Then I countersunk the aluminum bars in to the side of the file cabinet drawers, so that saved about another 1/2" per side and got me back to my preferred knee width in the middle.
The top: This is a quarter sawn grain, so has some neat curl and some slight Medullary Rays (similar to what you see a lot of in quarter sawn oak). I've never really seen the rays in mesquite, so that is a nice surprise in the character of the top.
The front:
I wanted something temporary for the front center panel so I just grabbed a cutoff from some lazy susans I did over christmas from an end grain cut of mesquite. It actually looks a lot better than just using some temporary scrap, and now I am afraid I won't want to change it. It gives a cool change in character and centers the front of the desk pretty well. I also mirrored all of the veneers on the panels on each side of the desk and picked two for the front that raise up towards the middle with the crack in them. I like how the shape/character naturally raises the eye to the center/front of the desk and the top.
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