With all of the social distancing and isolation going on right now due to the coronavirus, a lot of employees are asking their employees to work from home to help reduce the spread. My employer is no different, as we were asked to work from home for at least the next four weeks. That’s a long time to work from home, so I decided I needed an actual desk to work from comfortably for the foreseeable future. Up until this point, when I’d occasionally work from home, I’d use my reclaimed pallet wood sofa table in our guest room as a desk. It worked ok, but it definitely is not suitable for an extended period.
We also had been talking about building a crafting table / workstation in the nook in our sitting room. So I decided this was the perfect opportunity to build a table that would eventually fit in that nook, but that I could temporarily set up in our guest room as my office.
I already had a few reclaimed 2x12s out in the shop, so I decided they would be the perfect starting point for the top. I ripped 1/4″ off of each edge to remove the rounded corners so they would join together better. To join the boards I used floating tenons and wood glue, with four parallel clamps to hold the boards together while the glue dried.
I decided to use a 3/4″ black iron pipes for the base, as I like the industrial look and more importantly they allow for a quick build. The base is built from the following components:
- 4 – 18″ pieces
- 4 – 6″ pieces
- 2 – 24″ pieces
- 1 – 6′ piece
- 4 Tees
- 8 flanges
- 2 structural pipe fitting tees
I really wanted to use 4-way fittings for the back joints instead of using regular tees plus the structural fitting tees, but I couldn’t find them in any of our local hardware stores.
My favorite part of this black pipe desk is the one thing the pictures do little justice – the finish on the top. My wife did a custom weathered grey finish that makes the reclaimed 2x12s look amazing. She used dark walnut stain, along with a homemade glaze of white paint and water to achieve the look. We then finished it off with three coats of a matte polycrylic to ensure that beautiful finish is well protected for years to come.
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