With the kid coming soon, I had to move my office out of the room, and turn it into the baby’s room. However the first thing I need to do is make the outside shelving first. The goal was to make a desk that could also function as a shelving for the outside. The project main ambition was to add doors to make the shelves look like apothecary.
The hard part was trying to source the materials to build the desk. Initially, I was thinking of trying to build the desk/shelf out of wood. I asked my father in law and he asked around to see how much it would cost to make the desk out of wood. I would try to make it myself, but because it is so large I would want a large shop to just cut a long pieces of wood. The issue I ran into was that the quote was around 3k to just get a basic full length table. Instead, I decided to look at ikea or amazon to find a cheaper alternative, because i would still need to make the doors myself. . I was mostly looking at the shelving that can hold cubes, because they were the deepest shelves i could find (16.25″). If I added a pull out shelf of 6-8 inches, it would be the same length as my desk at home. Which would be around the distance my current desk is.
I removed the curtains and cleaned up the entire wall.
So I ended up buying 5 bookcases (around $600). I built 4 of the bookcases and put them on the side. For 2 of the bookcases, i raised the middle shelving and removed the dividers. The other 2 bookcases, I built it exactly as the design. While for the middle bookcase, I reused the sides from the shelves, but I had to buy my own pine board and wood to make the middle shelve 4 inches longer. I also added an 8 inch slide out desk slide. I needed the other last 8 inches to add the motorized monitor lift.
This project took me around 1 week to make, 4 hours to build all 4 shelves. Then around 8 hours to make the middle desk so I could hid the monitor. I think overall, I must have spent around $900 dollars, which included the motorized monitor, extra wood and furnishes.
I still need to add doors and continue to modify the shelves/desk later after the kid is out because I have a lot of other things to do, and the desk is in a good usable spot. I feel like the doors will require at least 30 man hours, because I need to come up with a design that looks good and then build it. Also, I have been trying to find doors that fit.
Overall, I am very happy with my shelves and desk. It makes me feel great knowing that I can do some good woodwork with just beginner woodworking tools (6 inch circular saw).
