Help designing desktop

[Scott Davis]

Good morning,
I am hoping for insight. I am designing a set of built in cabinets, the corner piece of which will be an "L" shaped desk. It is 24" deep, 40" on each side, and has a small angled portion for the user. It will be 1.5" thick. A computer will be mounted in the recessed corner.

The cabinets are painted, but I want to make the desktop stained wood. Wanting to learn some skills better, I was thinking I would do it with solid boards glued together, but these are the options I have come up with.

1) Solid wood boards, 6" wide- I can glue two together, and run that through planer. Then join the pieces into a larger pieces with more gluing. The angled portion and end grain could be banded with a strip of solid wood.

2) Solid wood boards, 3" wide- this would let me do 4 at a time, and maybe alternating grains could minimize warping? The angle portion and end grain could be banded with a strip of solid wood.

3) Buy a pre-made butcher block, which would save me the fabrication of this. I could put together in 3 pieces, using joint fasteners and glue underneath. These come 1.5" thick already. End grains would need banding I think?

4) Use hardwood plywood with solid wood edge banding or regular banding (not as sturdy maybe). For this one I would use a subbase of MDF I think to add heft, and then edging. This one is easier and least likely to be issues with warping, etc. The plywood joints could be harder to make nice.

I would love to hear your thoughts on these options and learn from prior mistakes!

Scottdesktop (1).png

[Jamie Buxton]

Option 4, the plywood version, would be easy and structurally sound. Unless you don't like the look of plywood, I'd go that way. I don't understand your mention of plywood joints. You'd just cut this 40x40 L shape out of one piece of plywood -- no joints, right?

As an aside, I find L-shaped desks are generally aggravating. The issue is that desks usually have columns of drawers flanking the knee hole. If you do that to an L-shape desk, every time you try to open a drawer, you have to move yourself and your chair, because you are sitting in the air space the drawer has to open into.

[Scott Davis]

Yes, could be from one sheet. I usually do most things with a table saw so was thinking how to do it that way. Cutting one piece would be done with Jigsaw and straightedge I guess? Would need a nice edge for the banding needed. Is that what you were thinking?

Agree on the "L". This will all open under here, with steel legs on open end, and the the cabinetry to the other side. Part of a greater set of built-ins.

[Scott Davis]

I do think I prefer the smaller boards butcher block look to stained plywood. Does anyone think it this would work in the "L" shape, joints in the block, and then edging that would be needed?

[Paul F Franklin]

Any of your methods could be made to work. Some thoughts: When you solid wood band the end grain of a solid wood panel, you have to allow for wood movement, since the panel will move a fair amount cross grain, and the long grain edge band won't move much. There are a few ways to deal with this, probably the easiest is to glue the band only at one end, and attach it the rest of the way with finish nails or brads that will allow a little movement.

If you go with solid wood (wide boards or narrow, butcher block style boards) think about which direction the grain will run in each section. Probably the easiest is to have the grain run along each long direction, meeting at a 45 degree miter coming out of the corner. But that leaves the little extra section to be made from a bunch of short little boards which could be weak and might look funny. You might look at some pictures of butcher block kitchen counters to see how corners look. Another way to handle the change in direction would be to weave the ends, like is often done on hardwood floors. Gives an interesting look, but is a bit technically challenging to do well.

No doubt the plywood would be the fastest/easiest approach, but if you do cut it out of a single sheet, the grain will run in the long direction on one leg and the short direction on the other leg. Matter of taste whether you like that or not.

[Scott Davis]

Yeah I have looked at many pictures. Most have a right angle and the grain has a butt joint. The little triangle is the issue with that, and I think I need that because a computer will be on there too so need a little more width.

I see what you mean about the end grain. Seems like brads wouldn't be enough on an area kids will be sitting at for strength

Can the end grain on the top be left unbanded then?

Thanks

[William Fretwell]

I would use Baltic birch plywood (Russian plywood). It comes in 5x5’ sheets, when cut the edge grain is very high quality, it needs no edge banding. Instead of the ‘stepped’ look cut a sweeping curve, keep it oversized and cut another sweeping curve 3 inches in front of the first using it as a template. Glue the two curves together, sand for a fine finish. Now you have some heft. Add further straight pieces to double up the ends.
With some planning you should get it out of one sheet. The cabinets underneath will be enough support for the desk area.

[Mel Fulks]

You could cover the plywood with a piece of real linoleum, small or large pieces of veneer, felt or cloth . The desk top needs to be symmetrical,
what you have now looks too much like a just a piece of cast-off plywood. If lack of space is the reason for that shape ,then I would a
a rectangular top hinged so that it could be dropped down when not needed.

[Scott Davis]

Playroom elevation.jpg


yes there is limited space, it is not meant to be a big office desk, but a place to put a PC and for kids to use for homework in an existing playroom, which has other purposes. A corner desk. I am pretty bad with Sketchup so this has many errors but basically shows the project. The desktop had a different shape here which may be a little better

[Gary Ragatz]

Given the 40"x40" footprint, I'm not sure I'd try to do the L-shape, especially if you want that 45* angled part facing into the corner. I think it will wind up being too cramped. A workable alternative might be a simple pentagon (see pic). This will give you a roughly 22-1/2" wide seating area, which is probably a little narrower than a standard desk, but not unreasonable.

I believe you could cut this from a single 4x8 sheet of plywood, with the grain running as indicated in the pic (there will be non-trivial trim waste). So the grain would run left-right as you're seated at the desk, which would be typical for a wood desktop. With a ledger board on both walls and the attached cabinet and one or two legs on the open end, there should be plenty of support (assuming your indicated MDF sub-surface).

If it were me, I'd spring for a sheet of walnut or cherry veneered plywood, and not mess with trying to stain softwood ply. Edge band with solid wood to match the veneer and finish with clear poly.

Desktop.jpg

[Scott Davis]

Some great ideas, thanks all.
Sounds like we will plan a nice plywood with edge banding and an MDF subsurface.
I will get the cabinets in and then make some cardboard cutouts to test the space to work with, the pentagon and curved shapes are great ideas. Edge banding harder on the curve!
Appreciate it!

[Scott Davis]

Many months ago I asked some questions and got some great help from everyone here. I finally finished my project! (I have a crazy day job and can only do weekend warrior work around 3 kid's sports schedules!).

Proud of how it came out and learned lots of new things doing this (building cabinetry, installing it with crooked walls, electrical stuff in walls, spray painting with HVLP, dovetail joinery for drawers....on and on!). Most of my prior projects were basically bookcases and shelves.

Here are some pics!

Thanks again for the great forum.

ScottIMG_0561 (1).jpeg69429431289__5EADC49D-A848-45C1-A7C7-B01DE8396944 (1).jpeg

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Very nice! I love the color. That may end up being your favorite spot in the house! (Other than the workshop).

[Gary Ragatz]

Looks good. Lots of work space and storage space! Like the finish.

[Jim W. White]

I am considering a similar corner desk scheme for our home office remodel. I think plywood is your easiest and most practical option. I don't often work with plywood, but sometimes it's just the right solution; I had to do this recently on a murphy bed project. Along those lines, in the "right tool for the job" category I often go to my KREG jig on plywood projects. You might find some inspiration in this build article they did.

https://learn.kregtool.com/plans/hobby-center-tables/

Good luck,
Jim in Idaho