We bought the door and legs from Lowes.
Hubby doing his part.
Here is what the Kreg jig does...it makes very nice pockets enabling you to screw the pieces together easily. Making the work look better and the project sturdier.
Here we have put the legs on the table. Now, in the design we are copying, they had the legs inset a couple of inches...which I liked. BUT...when we tried that, the screw went straight into the hollow door, completely bypassing the border stud (or whatever it is called). It could have been just a minute amount, but we didn't want to put another jig hole into the leg, so we decided to just put the legs flush with the edge of the table.
Here you can see the pocket holes that go around the table. You can also see, where we chose to add the rail a tad inside the table. We did this simply to add a little bit of "character" if there is such a word for your first wood working project.
Now here you can see the little indents that was made by the clamp. I really wasn't expecting these to be there. Hmm, maybe I can put a little putty and sand smooth. You can also see on the right leg where it doesn't quite touch the top. No biggie, I will just push some wood putty there and sand.
Together and upright. I know some will say it is very narrow. Well, it is... but the room it is going in, is a small room. Also, in this room is a two seater chair that opens to a single bed..and when opened I don't want to worry about it hitting the desk.
Now, here you can see the comparison between the old and new. The old desk WAS also twice as deep as it is now, just recently we cut it in half, just to see if I could function with a narrow desk. You can also see, that the length is longer than that the old desk, which will allow me to spread items out. I think it will work just fine.
The hard part has come...what color do I paint it? My house is very plain, boring and dull...I so want to add some color..but once you add color especially to something major like a desk, it will be hard to add more colors..so the choice has to be right on. A color that is neutral but yet adds color.
Please ignore the cardboard boxes under the desk...they have since been removed. When it is painted and in place, I will post a picture of the finished project.
UPDATE: As much as I wanted color, I just couldn't do it. There are way to many colors and I had no idea of what color to choose. Went to HD and brought home handfuls of those little color squares. I looked, looked and looked at them for days...which color to choose? ...what if I paint it a nice blue or a pretty red or a vibrant green...and then you walk past the room and all you see is this color desk.
My colors will just have to come from small accent pieces, it's much easier that way. Or atleast until I follow Nike's rule and Just Do It...maybe someday.
..and the color is "evening hush".
I know, I know..it's my normal, safe color...but I like it. There needs to be another coat of paint put on the top, then lightly sand, layer of poly, lightly sand and layer of poly. With the weather being cool, the process takes longer, as the paint takes longer to cure. But as soon as it's in the house and ready for show, I will post the completed project.
UPDATE: We can now check this project off our to do list. The door is now officially a desk.
Before
I love how the room seems so much larger, simply by have nothing under the desk. The downside is that there are no drawers and I have lost all that storage. Several times this evening, I have had to get up and go to the other desk, and retreive supplies.
We are thinking about cutting the drawers off of the old desk, painting them the same color as the new desk, adding wheels to the bottoms and rolling them under the new desk. It might work. In addition to having drawer space, those drawers hid all the cords...you now can see every cord...eww...so not attractive. Those drawers served several purposes...storage and hiding the cords.
Now, that I have the new desk, I want a new chair. Not a computer chair, but a real desk chair. Maybe I can find one at a thrift store, yardsale or side of the road, one that just needs some TLC, like a new paint job and/or recovering it with some new fabric...keeping fingers crossed.
Reminder To My Sister....you should be able to click on a picture to enlarge it.
