Finally! My Homemade Desk is Done!!!

Published October 7, 2013

OMG, this took about 6 weeks, or maybe 4, if you subtract interruptions by out-of-town visitors (which were fun, of course, so I’m not complaining). 😉

Ten feet 4 inches of custom desktop, made to fit so very tightly in this space. Not counting for the immense amount of time spent, but including the store-bought cabinets, this whole system cost less than 2 corner desks from Ikea (and this one’s not made of particleboard), and 1/4 of something semi-equivalent from Pottery Barn, neither of which were just what I wanted, or iow — This!

And I learned a lot! How to do a bunch of stuff, how not to do a thing or two, and that carpenters are awesome! Seriously, carpentry requires so much focus, math, clear thinking, rethinking, measuring, measuring, measuring, and measuring again, fitting, cutting, adjusting, taking good notes (or perhaps having an amazing memory, which I don’t), and did I say focus? One tiny mistake can cost days of recovery. Don’t ask me how I know. :\

So, yes, mistakes were made, though luckily, nothing too big or unrecoverable. If I were to do it over again (which, luckily, I don’t need to), I learned a few things to do differently. And I only cut myself once, on the Japanese style sharp saw, from trying to put the safety cover back on (can you say ironic?) – tiny cuts, not bad.