After making a couple mid century modern nightstands for a bedroom renovation, I wanted to add a desk that would compliment the clean and modern look. This easy to build DIY desk design is inspired by mid century modern Scandinavian furniture and the plan can be easily customized for a desk size suited to your own space. It’s a perfect weekend woodworking project for a beginning woodworker!
I made the top and bottom of the desk from 1″ x 10″ lumber which gave me the flexibility on the length of the desk. Because the space where this desk would be is small, my design measures 4 feet long and 18″ deep. Because the space was small, I was able to use two 8′ boards each for the top and bottom, but these come in 10′ and 12′ lengths, so you can easily adjust. Also, if you want a deeper desk, you can use 2″ x 12″ lumber for a 23″ depth.
For the legs, I used pre-made tapered legs from Waddell that are available at Lowes (at least they are at the time I’m writing this) and they can also be purchased on line. The same manufacturer makes two different types of brackets to attach the legs, a straight bracket and an angled bracket. For this design I used the angle bracket.
The legs come in a variety of lengths, and I found that the two longer sizes, 21 1/2″ and 27 1/2″ are either too short or too long for a 30″ high desk top. So the options are either to make your own legs from 2″ x 2″ lumber (which you can do and I’ll describe how at the end of the post) or to cut the 27 1/2″ length down 3″. While cutting the legs down a little takes a bit of extra work – because you have to remove the mounting screw, cut the tapered leg at 90 degrees and then re-drill and replace the mounting screw – I think it’s a lot easier than making your own legs and I’ll show you how to do it. This is arguably the hardest part of the project and it’s really not all that hard.
This Scandinavian DIY desk design also has spaces for up to 3 drawers, although I like the look of 2 drawers with a space in the middle. If you haven’t made drawers before, this is a great project to learn. I used 1/2″ plywood for the drawer front, back and sides and 1/4″ plywood for the bottom.
Tools Recommended
- Table Saw
- Dado Blade Set capable of 1/2″ cuts
- Biscuit Joiner
- Kreg Pocket Hole Jig (optional)
- Clamps
- Hand Sander
- Jigsaw or Coping Saw
- Circular Saw
- Router with a roundover bit (optional)
Some notes on the tools:
The dado blade set is used to make dados for the drawer dividers. You can make these cuts by using a regular saw blade on your table saw, setting the blade a 1/4″ height and making multiple passes, but that can be tedious and a dado blade set makes it so much easier.
A biscuit joiner is a better solution than a Kreg Jig for the joints on this project, particularly for the sides of the desk box, due to the angle of the pocket holes you would need to drill.
Dont’ get me wrong. I love my Kreg Jig and use it all the time. But in some cases, like with this particular mid century modern style DIY desk version, biscuits are better than pocket holes. If you use pocket holes to join the top and bottom of the desk to the sides, you need to drill your pocket holes on the inside of the top and bottom panels. This means that your pocket hole screws will be angled to the outside top and bottom corners of the desk, which is not a good angle for the joint and unless you’re extremely careful, you run the risk of either splitting the wood at screw hole or drilling with too much pressure so the tip of the screw damages the exposed corner of the side pieces.
Also for this plan I rounded the edges of the side pieces with a router so using pocket holes would result in the screw tips being exposed on the edges.
The router is totally optional, but I think that the rounded edges add a cool designer flare to the mid century modern desk look. You can also kind of get the same look using a hand sander, but that’s a lot more work!
I used the jigsaw to cut out the drawer pulls on the drawer fronts. You can also use a coping saw which is a much cheaper alternative. Of course, you can always buy some traditional screw in drawer pulls instead of cutting the pulls and it would look equally awesome, just different.
The circular saw will come in handy if you need to trim the edges of your top and bottom pieces. I’ll show you that in a video when I get to that part.
Materials List
- (2) 1″ x 10″ x 8′ Pine Boards
- (1) 1″ x 6″ x 6′ Pine Board (or at least 4′ if you can cut to size)
- (2) 1/2″ x 6″ x 2′ Project Boards
- (1) 2′ x 4′ 1/2″ Plywood Sheet
- (1) 2′ x 4′ 1/4″ Plywood Sheet
- (4) 27 1/2″ Tapered Legs
- (1 Pack/4) Angled Leg Brackets
Cut List
- (4) 1″ x 10″ @ 48″ – Desk Top & Bottom
- (2) 1″ x 6″ @ 19″ – Desk Sides
- (2) 1/4″ plywood @ 15″ x 19 1/2″ – Drawer Bottoms
- (4) 1/2″ x 3 7/8″ @ 18″ – Drawer Sides
- (4) 1/2″ x 3 7/8″ @ 15 1/2″ – Drawer Front & Back
- (2) 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ @ 19″ – Drawer Dividers
- (4) Tapered Legs cut to 24 1/2″
Assembling the Desk
I prefer to join the desk top and bottom panels with biscuits and wood glue. You can, of course, use pocket holes as well. If you use pocket holes, be sure to measure where you’re going to cut your dados before drilling your pocket holes so that the screw doesn’t line up with where you will make your dado cuts.
Next using your table saw and dado blade set, cut 1/4″ deep dado joints into the top and bottom panels.
I highly recommend using biscuits to join the side panels instead of pocket holes. As I mentioned above, if you use pocket holes to join the side panel to the top and bottom panels, then that means you would need to drill your pocket holes on the inside of the top and bottom panels so the screw points up and out toward the exposed corners. If you round the corners with a router, then the screw tips will be exposed and even it you don’t you run the risk of the screw splitting the wood at the corner.
Next, insert the dividers using wood glue in the joint.
Clamp the desk so the joints are tight and let the glue dry. While we’re waiting, we’ll move on to making the drawers and then cutting the legs to the appropriate size.
Making the Drawers
Here’s a picture of the drawer exploded so you can get a visual of the construction:
After cutting all of your drawer box panels, set up your table saw with a 1/4″ dado blade and make 1/4″ deep dado grooves on each of the panels.
Next, use a pencil and carpenter’s square to draw the drawer pull. Use a compass or a nickel or a piece of PVC to trace the rounded corners. Using a jigsaw, cut out the hand pull and then use sandpaper to smooth the edges.
Using pocket holes, attach the sides and rear of the drawer.
Slide the drawer bottom into the dado, reinforcing the joint with wood glue.
Attach the drawer face
Below is the drawer, fully assembled, with measurements.
Cutting the Legs To Size
The prefab legs come in standard sizes and for this project, they’re either too short or too long. But with some patience, a vice, a drill, some PVC and some pieces of 1/4″ thick scrap wood you can cut the legs to size. In this project, I’m cutting a 27 1/2″ standard size tapered leg down to 24 1/2″ which positions the desk top at 30″ high.
You’ll need a vice (or pliers and a strong grip) to remove the bolt that’s screwed into the tapered leg. These threaded screws have a course thread on one end and a fine thread on the other. You can find these threaded screws at the home improvement stores, but hold onto the ones you remove so you don’t have to make extra trips.
Once you get the threaded screws out, the challenge is to get a clean 90 degree cut on the leg. Because it’s tapered, you’ll need a way of keeping it level when you cut it with your miter saw. In the picture above, I’ve used a piece of PVC and some wooden shims to keep the leg level and stable so I can make the 3″ cuts needed.
It will be helpful to have some stops set to make sure the length of each leg is exactly the same. Otherwise you’ll need to measure and cut very carefully so you don’t have a wobbly desk!
Mark the center of the post (see my video for a simple and quick jig to mark the center) and then drill a pilot hole for yoru threaded screw.
Attach the angled brackets by making marks at 3 1/2″ on both adjacent sides and positioning the bracket as shown below.
Now you can attach the shortened legs to the brackets.
Here are a couple in progress shots of my desk.
Finishing
Stay tuned for some pictures of the final fully painted desk!