• Home
  • Blog
  • About Me
    • Contact Me
      • Advertise
      • Privacy Policy
  • Shop

The Wood Grain Cottage

  • Seasonal
    • Spring
    • Summer
    • Fall
    • Winter
  • Project Gallery
    • Remodeling
    • DIY Projects
    • Decorating Ideas
    • Furniture Makeovers
    • Sewing
    • Gardening
    • Recipes
    • Organizing
  • Home Tour
    • Our Current House
    • The Original Wood Grain Cottage
  • Shop Our Home
    • My Amazon Storefront
DIY· Projects

The Office Desk: The Base

March 13, 2017

When we began the design process for the office, I wanted to make sure I’d have plenty of work space, as well as storage. The best way to do that, was to maximize the room by having the desk run along two of the walls, giving me plenty of work space. Because this is a pretty lengthy tutorial, I’ll be sharing how we installed the office desk throughout the week, but today it’s all about the base.

As I mentioned above, and in this post, I really needed to have ample storage space for both office supplies and files. The base of the office desk needed to be a work horse too, and that’s why we decided on using two IKEA dressers, plus a lateral filing cabinet.

Here’s what we used for the base:

  • 2- Malm IKEA Dressers, adapted to fit the proper height for the desk
  • 1- Lateral Filing Cabinet, with a similar design to the dressers

First, we made a trip to IKEA to purchase our dressers. We needed something that would provide plenty of drawer space, be sturdy enough to be the base of the desk (and hold the weight of the desk top), and be reasonable in price. We spent a good amount of time debating on a few different options, but the Malm dresser was the clear winner. I loved the simple design, the drawer space… and the price!

We put them together right after the walls were finished…

Building Our Office Desk by The Wood Grain Cottage

Building Our Office Desk by The Wood Grain Cottage

Once they were assembled, we could get a final height for the desk, taking into account our carpet and pad…

Building Our Office Desk by The Wood Grain Cottage

With the dressers assembled, we started on the lateral filing cabinet, which we knew was shorter than the dressers, and that we’d have to build a base to add extra height…

Building Our Office Desk by The Wood Grain Cottage

Assembly went smoothly, and we were left with a nice, basic white filing cabinet…

Building Our Office Desk by The Wood Grain Cottage

The filing cabinet had a finished height of 28 1/4″ tall, and the dressers were 30 3/4″ tall. To determine the final height of the desk, we had to know the thickness of our countertop, which after much debate, we decided on these countertops from IKEA. I’ll be sharing the tutorial on that part of the project later in the week, but we had to know exactly how tall everything would be before we could build a base for the filing cabinet.

After a bit of debate, we decided to remove the top portion of the Malm dressers…

Building Our Office Desk by The Wood Grain Cottage

Removing it brought the height of the desk down an inch, which was better for the overall desk height, as well as the way the countertop looks with the dresser.

Building Our Office Desk by The Wood Grain Cottage

Installing the countertop directly on top of the dresser frame created a much more seamless look, which I liked much better than leaving the original dresser top in place. That also meant we wouldn’t need to build as large of a riser for the filing cabinet.

Here’s how we built the riser:

Please note: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, which allows us to make a small commission from your purchase, but your purchase price stays the same. Thank you for helping support our blog! We greatly appreciate it! 

Supplies:
  • 1- 2″ x 3″ x 8′ board, cut to size
  • 3″ torx screws
  • Table Saw, this is similar to ours
  • Miter Saw, this is similar to ours
  • Countersink
  • Clamps
  • Screw Driver/ Drill
  • Tri Square
  • Tape Measure
  • 5/32 Drill Bit, for pilot holes
  • Small Cabinet Screws, these are similar
  • Wall Putty
  • Painters Tape
  • Paint Brush
  • White Paint, I used Super White by Benjamin Moore in semi-gloss

With the height determined, we started on the wood riser. We used a 2″ x 3″ board, and trimmed it down to size with our table saw until it fit the overall height we needed, which was 1 5/16″ tall x 1 3/4″ wide…

Building Our Office Desk by The Wood Grain Cottage

With the boards cut to the right size and length, we started building the frame…

Building Our Office Desk by The Wood Grain Cottage

Anthony pre-drilled the screw holes…

Building Our Office Desk by The Wood Grain Cottage

Building Our Office Desk by The Wood Grain Cottage

And then added the screws…

Building Our Office Desk by The Wood Grain Cottage

We followed the same steps on each side of the riser, and then used a tape measure to make sure it was square, which it was 🙂 …

Building Our Office Desk by The Wood Grain Cottage

Then, Anthony used his tri-square to measure and mark where to drill pilot holes to attach the riser to the filing cabinet…

Building Our Office Desk by The Wood Grain Cottage

We used our drill press to insure the holes were straight, but you could easily use a regular drill…

Building Our Office Desk by The Wood Grain Cottage

Once all the holes were drilled, here’s what we were left with…

Building Our Office Desk by The Wood Grain Cottage

With the riser done, we flipped over the filing cabinet and sat it in place…

Building Our Office Desk by The Wood Grain Cottage

It fit perfectly, sitting flush on each side, so we used these small cabinet screws we had in our stash to attach the riser to the cabinet…

Building Our Office Desk by The Wood Grain Cottage

We added the screws to each drill hole…

Building Our Office Desk by The Wood Grain Cottage

And then flipped the filing cabinet back over to make sure everything was in tip top shape…

Building Our Office Desk by The Wood Grain Cottage

 

And just like that, it was ready to be painted. We tipped it back over and I filled the holes with wall putty…

Building Our Office Desk by The Wood Grain Cottage

Once the putty was dry, I sanded it smooth, wiped everything clean and then taped off the filing cabinet…

Building Our Office Desk by The Wood Grain Cottage

I added three coats of super white paint by Benjamin Moore in semi-gloss. It’s a little bit brighter white than the actual filing cabinet, but it’s close enough to create a seamless look…

Building Our Office Desk by The Wood Grain Cottage

Once the paint was dry, the filing cabinet was ready! Here’s how it looks right now…

Building Our Office Desk by The Wood Grain Cottage

The height matched up perfectly with the dressers, so the next step, was installing the actual counter top, which I’ll be sharing next!

Here’s a peek at how everything’s come together so far!

Building Our Office Desk by The Wood Grain Cottage

We still have a little ways to go before we’re ready to call this room “finished”, but we’re sooo close! More tutorials coming soon, and I’m so happy to say that I’ve already added all our files into the filing cabinet! We were originally going to do two of them, but after a little debate, we decided to only install one. I’ve shredded more paper in the last few days than I ever thought possible. I’ve purged so many things we don’t need, and we’re slowly but surely making the shift to try and go paperless! If you have experience with that, please share your system below! 🙂

Stay tuned for the next part of building our desk!

 

I’m Shayna… The small town Colorado girl who’s obsessed with home and everything that entails! I’m a creative, a decorator, a day dreamer, a huge fan of scones and I’m passionate about loving where I live and making a home.

Tagged with: office9 Comments

Comments

  1. Linda Cole says

    March 13, 2017 at 7:49 PM

    Wow!! I love it! The room is going to look so good when you are all done. Can’t wait to see it. Great job!! It will be so much more efficient. You are lucky to have such a talented husband.

    Reply
    • Shayna says

      March 14, 2017 at 4:33 PM

      Thank you! We’re looking forward to having a functional and efficient office we both love! And I agree, I’m not sure what I’d do without Anthony! He can make anything possible! 🙂

      Reply
  2. Amy says

    March 14, 2017 at 4:35 AM

    It looks great so far! Where did you get the shelves?

    Reply
    • Shayna says

      March 14, 2017 at 4:30 PM

      Thank you! We built the shelves. You can read about them here: https://www.thewoodgraincottage.com/2017/03/03/the-office-shelves/

      Reply
  3. Erin says

    March 14, 2017 at 2:33 PM

    Everything is looking so great and coming together so well! Can’t wait to hear about those leather pulls!
    Great work!!

    Reply
    • Shayna says

      March 15, 2017 at 1:34 PM

      Thank you so much! I’ll be sharing about the leather pulls next week! 🙂

      Reply
  4. Pamela R LePage says

    March 14, 2017 at 9:15 PM

    Everything looks great !!

    Reply
  5. L. Wise says

    March 15, 2017 at 11:15 AM

    Lovely job. I am looking forward to more. Of this type of projects.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. The Office Desk: The Countertop - The Wood Grain Cottage says:
    March 15, 2017 at 2:05 PM

    […] desk is pretty lengthy, I decided to break it up into a few different parts. On Monday, I shared how we built the base, making a riser for the filing cabinet and determining the overall height of the desk. Today, […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

I’m Shayna… The small town Colorado girl who’s obsessed with home and everything that entails! I’m a creative, a decorator, a day dreamer, a huge fan of scones and I’m passionate about loving where I live and making a home.

Join our newsletter

Search:

Join our newsletter

This past weekend we hit our 2021 house project go This past weekend we hit our 2021 house project goals HARD! With all the bedroom trim done (hallelujah!), we’ll be painting and installing closet doors next! 👏🏻  I always look forward to crossing projects off the list... and finishing our trim has been on there waaaay too long! 😵  #thewoodgraincottage #thewgc #houseremodel #kitchenshelves
Oh those beautiful, twinkling lights... they’re Oh those beautiful, twinkling lights... they’re my favorite! On the blog I’m joining several bloggers and we’re all sharing our night home tours!  If you love the warm twinkle of Christmas lights, you’ll love these beautiful tours! 🎄🌟  #thewoodgraincottage #thewgc #christmastree #christmasdecor #christmasstockings #christmasnightstour #christmasatnight
Our red, white and gold Christmas home tour is on Our red, white and gold Christmas home tour is on the blog! 🎄🌟  This year has been such a fun and special time with the addition of our sweet Ania. She makes us even more excited for Christmas than normal and adding her stocking with ours made my momma heart burst. ❤️  See more of our home on the blog, and be sure to visit all the other beautiful homes on the tour as well!  #thewoodgraincottage #thewgc #christmasdecor #christmashometour #christmastree #christmasdecorations #christmas #christmashome
Next week I’m sharing our Christmas home tour, b Next week I’m sharing our Christmas home tour, but in the meantime, I’ve been spreading Christmas cheer throughout the house! On the blog, I’m sharing my favorite, simple decorating ideas you can incorporate into your home... with the items you already own!  They’re guaranteed to help you add a festive touch to your home! 🎄🌟  #thewoodgraincottage #thewgc #christmasdecor #christmasdecorating #christmasdecorations #easychristmasdecor #christmas
Current mood: Sitting by the Christmas tree lookin Current mood: Sitting by the Christmas tree looking at those pretty twinkling lights! It’s my favorite thing about having the tree up!  #thewoodgraincottage #thewgc #christmasdecor #christmastree #christmastreelights #redchristmasdecor
Happy Thanksgiving! Wishing you a wonderful day ce Happy Thanksgiving! Wishing you a wonderful day celebrating everything we have to be grateful for! My list is long and may I never forget how blessed I am!  #thewoodgraincottage #thewgc #thanksgivingdecor #thanksgivingtable #thanksgivingtablescape
This error message is only visible to WordPress admins

Error: API requests are being delayed for this account. New posts will not be retrieved.

Log in as an administrator and view the Instagram Feed settings page for more details.

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • Shop
  • Email
Copyright © 2021 The Wood Grain Cottage · Custom site by Moonsteam Design · Privacy Policy