As I explained in my
previous post, I wanted a bigger desk for the new studio, but wasn't comfortable with the price tags. We have other things we need to still buy for the house, so I didn't want to break the bank for the desk - however I also didn't want to sacrifice style, or function. I did a lot of research, and was prepared to spend on the desk if I needed to, but Aubrey and I worked together on this concept, and instead of multiple digits for this size of a desk, it worked out to be $300.00. :)

We bought three planks of pine from Home Depot, got them cut to be 129" in lengh and rented a Home Depot Van to get them home. We calculated that the three of them together, placed side by side, would create the best depth for the desk.
When we got them home, I sanded down three planks and decided which plank would be at the front of the desk, so I could pay extra attention to the edge that I would be sitting against.
The sanding not only smoothed it down (the edges in particular) but the process helped removed markings that were there like a "Made in Canada" ink stamp and some other were just ink marks.

I bought Walnut Stain, water based, from Home Depot. To apply, I used a foam brush, although any brush would do. I combined the staining with a rag. The nice thing is, since it's waterbased you can get really into it with bare hands, and your hands aren't going to be stained forever. For
my side table project I used the non-water based stain, which was stinkier and hard to clean up (I think I threw out the brushes) and I was a lot happier this time around using Varathanes waterbased stain.

I did 2-3 coats of the stain. The thing to remember is when it's dried, it looks a bit "bleh", but when I applied the Semi-gloss varathane on after, it makes it REALLY pop. I wish I had sanded again as since being installed in the studio, there are some rough patches.
We purchased three
Ikea Besta Cabinets ($65 each). We initially bought the silver legs to go with them, but after adding the top on to the bases, the desk heigh was WAY too high so the legs came off.


We had to raise the Besta units by placing wood underneath until it got to the desired height - you can see it right now in the picture above, but we'll be adding trim so it will be hidden.
Also, you will see that the depth of the desk top, is deeper than the depth of the Ikea Base cabinets. What we did was create hidden legs behid the Ikea cabinets by getting 4x4 posts, cut to the right size @ Home Depot. We secured the legs to the desk top. You can't see them, but they are VERY necessary in order to keep the desk secure. Since it's such a long desk, we did a lot of "procautions"
We also, for the safety of working at the desk, to keep all three planks together, was to get rectangular brackets, to hold each plank to one another. (
Here is a picture of the kind of brackets, that I found online)
You're seeing a snippit of the new office, but it's still a mess, and still much a work in progress, but at least this awesome desk is now complete!