My Office Remodel: How to Build a Queen Anne Style Desk

Office Remodel: DIY Queen Anne Style Desk.

 In my first blog, I mentioned how I would rather go without a desk than to settle (and pay) for an “okay” desk until I found  my dream desk.

I meant it.

I decided to go back to school about a year after we bought the house.  This is what prompted my desk search. For once, I didn’t have an impossibly specific style in mind.  I just knew I wanted a large surface, so that I could add some accessories and necessities without it looking overcrowded. And I didn’t want big, bulky desk drawers.  I looked for a desk like this for months. 

I found nothing.

Everything was either too small, or too plain, or too ornate, or laminate.  As the school year started getting close, I almost settled for one of these options, temporarily. But the closest thing I could find were laminate parsons desks styles that were still around $300. I just couldn’t bring myself to pay that for something I was hoping to soon replace.  Thankfully, my wonderful husband offered to build me one.  Now he is not a trained woodworker.  In fact, this is one of his very first projects.  He’s just been trying new projects since we bought the house and teaching himself how to build new things as we go.   I designed a desk, and he figured out a way to build it.  So I’m going to share how HE went about doing this with as a novice DIYer with limited resources.  It may not be the technical way.  But there are other sites for that. If he can do this, so can you.

What you’ll need:

Materials:

1 sheet ¾” MDF (You can have these cut down to size at the store.  I did 30”x 52” and they come in 4’x 8’  sheets, so you’ll probably have enough leftover for end tables or other projects)- for the desk top

2  1”x4” poplar boards (8’ length)- for the skirt

4  Queen Anne style legs

28  pocket screws

Equipment

Circular Saw

Miter Saw

Pocket Screw Jig

Drill

Router

Router bit- This is used for the decorative edging around the desk top, so just choose a style that suits you

It’ll be hard to show you step-by-step, since my desk was made a year ago, but the process is so simple, it won’t be hard to catch on.

Step 1:  Cut the poplar boards down to the appropriate size to make a skit for your table.  Jared cut two 45”, and two 24”. This way, the boards started 3” in from the edge of the table, and  sat in 1 ½” in from the side.

Step 2: Using a pocket-screw jig, counter sink two holes into what will be the inside corners of the 

skirt.  These holes are for the screws that will go in at a side angle, attaching the skirt to the legs.

Image from trenddirectuk.com

Step 3: Screw the boards into the legs using the pocket screws.  You can use a piece of scrap wood as a spacer, to make sure that the boards are pushed back evenly onto the legs.

Step 4: The base of the desk is finished! Sand and paint.

Step 5:  Make sure the desktop is cut to the size you want.  Then, using a straight edge as a guide, router around all four sides to make the decorative edge.

Step 6: sand and paint the desktop.

Step 7: Once everything has completely dried, use the pocket screw jig again to counter sink three, evenly spaced holes into the inside of each skirt board.  These will be facing upward, to attach the skirt to the desktop.  

Step 8: Position the table top, and screw in using pocket screws.

Step 9: Apply a couple coats of polycrylic for protection, and you have a new, custom desk!

My October Project: Office Makeover

So, I’ve been loving my new bookshelf that we put together for my office last week.  Not only do I love it for its functional purposes…but its nice to just have something that I know that I did (with the help of my wonderful husband, of course).  And its so pretty to look at!

This has inspired me to finally completely redo my office.  Throughout the past two years, we have done little things, here and there, to all areas of the house.  We’ll buy one piece of furniture for one room, paint the walls in a different room,  hand art for another room…

But we haven’t tackled one room, from start to finish.  A lot of that has to do with the time and money strain that we’re going through with planning a wedding and both getting our master’s degrees.  Another reason is that, since we re eventually doing a whole-home renovation, so much of what we do in each room, kind of depends on what we’re doing to adjoining rooms. For example, if we open up one wall or change the flooring.

However, my office is free of this dilemma.  It is in the corner of the house that should be, otherwise, untouched.  And its all mine….which means I can make every single decision without finding the time to consult with my husband and come to an agreement. I’ll probably do so anyway, just because of my complete indecisiveness. But I don’t HAVE to.

So, things to tackle in the office over the next few weeks:

Decide on an overall “style”            

Say goodbye to mismatched furniture

Organize- Everything needs a home!

Decorate-Create artwork and finishing touches

With my busy schedule, I’m going to give myself The month of October for this challenge.  I think the hardest task will be to choose the overall style for my room!  I appreciate little elements of all different styles….but I hate when rooms are so hodge-podge and don’t come together.  For the rest of the house, I think I tend to lean towards a more clean and modern style.  That’s the look that represents my husband and I the best, and I want all the rooms to flow together.  However in this space, I want to do something different.  I want to add those feminine touches that I leave out of all of the “community” rooms.

However, I’m having a bit of a difficult time choosing between two very different feminine styles. I think it would be fun to do something ultra glam, with bold prints and colors:

But then again, I love that romantic, Queen Anne look with soft colors, too…

Maybe there’s a tasteful way to combine both?  I’m open to suggestions.  I’ll keep you posted on what I decide and I’ll show you how we pull it all together! 

My Office: Before

 

Spray Painting Laminate Furniture

So, I have to admit... I can be quite picky when it comes to furniture. And my picky-ness really slows down our attempts to acquire any.  It's probably a problem that I need to work on fixing, but...I can't help it. I want to love every piece that is in my home. And I try to avoid buying the "alright" version while I wait to find the real deal.  Why pay $300 for a disposable, laminate Ikea desk, when I can put that money towards my dream desk that I am BOUND to find sooner or later? 

But sometimes, I will make an exception to my laminate furniture rule. And that's when the furniture is free.

My lovely brother and sister-in-law gifted us with this new bookshelf that they decided they wouldn't have any use for.

I actually have been in need of a bookshelf to help get my office in order. And due to my aforementioned furniture-shopping flaws, I have been out of luck.  So I'm already super excited finally be able to have my reading materials neatly organized...and on top of that, it will give me a good excuse to test out one of my many novice-DIYer questions...can you spray paint laminate furniture?

I've Googled this question and only came up with a bunch of blog posts of people painting laminate furniture by hand. I figured that meant that that is how it should be done.  But part of the reason for this blog is to find out things the hard way, so others don't have to. So I gave it a shot.



There are a few brands out there who have spray paints that are made for plastic.  Since Laminate is typically a  layer of plastic covering something else, I thought this was my best bet.  I bought both Valspar Color Radiance (Lowe's) and Krylon Fusion(Wl-Mart), in order to compare the two. They were both about $4.

Supplies: Minwax Polycrilic (To protect), Valspar Color Radiance in White and La Fonda Mirage, Exacto Knife(for stencil)

Normally, I would lightly sand the laminate with find-grit sand paper, then prime, then brush on paint. But since this post is about finding shortcuts.  I just sprayed away.  I painted  the majority of the entire bookshelf white.  Once it dried, I printed a picture that I found on a wallpaper website, printed it out on card stock, and made a stencil out of it using an exacto knife. I used Valspar Color Radiance In La Fonda Mirage with this stencil to create the design on the back of the shelf.This is what I found:

Calspar-Color Radiance in Flat White

Krylon Fusion in White

The Valspar paint went on nice and evenly, and it was really easy to spray from any angle. This came in handy, since my bookshelf was already put together and I needed to spray from some awkward angles.  The Krylon paint ust sat on top of the laminate, as you would probably expect normal paint to do.  As you can see in the picture, it pooled us and dripped, and didn't really work out as well as the Valspar brand.

Immediately after the paint dried, it was REALLY prone to scratching.  had to patch up a few spots before I put the polycrylic on to protect it.  I did two layers of polycrylic.  So far, it seems to be holding up  really well.  Here's the final product:

I'm really happy with how it turned out.  It was a low-budget project that looks great in my office and is going to make my space a little more organized. And who doesn't love that?  Send me pictures if you try this out, and let me know how it works for you. I might feature your projects and tips on here!

First Comes Love, Then Comes Marriage...

Then comes a complete home remodel. That is what my new husband, Jared,  and I are about  to embark on.  We bought our first home in June 2011.  It's a 1964 two-story in Cincinnati Ohio, and It is perfect for our first home.  It has plenty of space (5 beds, 3 baths), its in a great location, and it has good bones. We wanted something that was built well, and in a nice area, but that was something we could really transform and make our own.  We both wanted a house that was a little older, to avoid the newer, cookie-cutter styles in the area. However...with age, comes every outdated feature that you can imagine in a home.

Our First Home (Before), and our dog, Starbucks

 We have worked on a couple of cosmetic updates over the past two years, but with both of us working full-time, and pursuing our master's degrees, and planning a wedding (actually, 2 weddings...but more on that later), we haven't been able to be as productive as we had hoped.  Now that we're married and I'm almost done with school, we think its time to really buckle down on transforming this space. I've decided to blog about it for a couple of reasons.  For one, this will be an easy way to keep all of our loved ones posted on our progress.  But along with that, DIY-ing our first home together is bound to be a long and challenging learning opportunity.  My husband and I are NOT contractors. We aren't interior designers, architects, plumbers, electricians, professional organizers, homemakers, or from any background that would give us any sort of benefit in this process.  We're going to have to teach ourselves. We're learning everything from demolitions, to furniture building, to budgeting, decorating, and keeping this home clean and tidy once we put it back together! There's going to be A LOT of trial and error.  But a lot of people are in that same boat.   And I hope some of you will benefit from our adventures. We'll learn the hard way, so that you don't have to.  And we'll be sure to share all of our pleasant discoveries along the way.  Just be sure to return the favor ;)