Home office custom furniture build

[ogosh]

My partner and I were lucky enough to move into a beautifully renovated 1914 Spanish Mission house in September 2017, and since then have set about turning it into a home. A few window locks, a side gate to keep the dog in, getting all the original internal doors swinging smoothly and a few new bathroom fixtures.... and we were done!

With no kids yet, we have a few spare rooms, so I decided to turn what was a formal lounge into a home office.

dressy estate agent "before shot"

After some inspiration from a local trendy cafe, it was straight onto pinterest and google and then down to bunnings with some measurements and plans in hand to pick up a few bits and pieces.

 20mm Galvanised pipe Acacia bench/panel 2200 x 600 x26

Then off to complete our gumtree purchase/pick-up and we were ready to begin:

 

First step was to pull apart the filling cabinet sand back flaking paint & rust then taping up the shiny bits ready for primer and paint.

 sanded and taped up  first coat of primer

The galvanised pipe comes with an oily coating and barcode stickers, which had to be soaked and scrubbed off with hot soapy water and turpentine:

hot soapy soaking  more buckets on the turps 115 pieces all up

Then it was time for a basic assembly for a test fit...

constructing the legs  shelf supports coming together  test fit - frame  test fit - desktop 

Next step was some basic asembly and to prime and paint all the pipe and fittings - 115 pieces all up!

homemade mini spray-booth primer 2nd coat of primer more priming priming shelf uprights

After the last coat of primer it was time for 2-3 coats of matt black spray enamel.

last coat of primer 

Once all the coats of spray enamel had dried it was onto final assembly.

THE FILLING CABINET was the easiest job with just a soak and wpe down of the polished handles and fittings in vinegar solution.

THE DESK legs and feet were adjusted for level, a few mini coach screws from underneath the table top and that was done.

BOOKSHELF was the last to be assembled ... First the uprights were grouped in 4's of the same height to aid in levelling the unit, then with only 96 holes drilled and filled with 96 specially ordered matt black nuts and bolts it was all done...AND....

The final product is below....

Lower leg & footing  Leg upright  Shelves    

Only additional bit of work was to bring in an electrician who put in some down lights:

[ogosh]

A few people have sent me messages asking about cost, so without too detailed a breakdown here they are:
Pipe, fittings, timber panel, and screws for the desk came to $336
Pipe fittings, timber panel, nuts & bolts for the bookshelf came to $430
Paint and primer was $22
All up total was $788
The only extravagant expense was custom black nuts and bolts for the bookshelf which came to $42.00 on their own...ouch!

[Jason]

Many thanks for sharing your numbers @ogosh. Sounds like your project has inspired many Workshop members. Well done!

Jason

[bluemoonskye]

@ogosh 

Loved the progress commentary & photos. Was inspirational. 

I purchased that acacia timber length (marked as a shelf), with the hope of cutting a length off to replace a side table top. But I wasn’t sure what the cut edge would look like. Is that what you used for the shelving system? And how did you treat the raw edge?

thx in advance 😊

[ogosh]

Hi @bluemoonskye,

Thanks for your kind comments,

The acacia panel is designed as a wet area/kitchen benchtop, so is finished on all 6 sides and ready to use as is, my shelves are in a home office so not concerned about waterproof-ness. 

However to ensure I only had nice finished edges showing, I had the panel cut strategically as follows.

• Once lengthways down the middle giving two 220cm x 30cm strips
• Then each of those were cut equally into 3 in three, to give 6 shelves at around 72cm long by 30cm deep

That way each shelf had at least one finished edge, but 4 (of the 6) had 2 fined edges (all the corner pieces from the original panel) perfect for a bookshelf which goes in a corner where only 2 of the 4 edges are visible.

With the 2 unfinished edge pieces, I put that right down the bottom at ankle height and the other right at the top well above head height, and I don't really see it at all.

Of course you could always get some stain/finish/sealer etc to tidy up any cut edges, but I didn't bother.

[bluemoonskye]

Great planning! 

What did you cut it with? I have a saw table but it doesn’t have a fine tooth blade on it. And I’m worried I might wreck the timber!

[ogosh]

You can mask up the surface with masking tape to prevent scratching and tear out and use a good straight edge and circular saw to rip it and then cross cut or just buy a new finer tooth table saw blade, should be less than $30.00

But I just had my local bunnings store cut it, if they do it smart it’s just 3 cuts which I think is only a $3 or so they often don’t charge either!

[StevieB]

Hi @ogosh,

Thanks for sharing your creative project with us. It's been really popular with almost 13,000 views.

Did you end up finding a suitable cable management solution? It would be great to hear an update.

Stevie

[ogosh]

Hi @StevieB,

Good timing.... I have just moved the desk and will be resetting it all up shortly in a new space and will send an update as soon as that is complete.

STAY TUNED.....

[KatieC]

Hi ogosh,

Really amazing work on your custom home office build!

I have seen a similar looking bookshelf for $1200 so that is quite a saving making it yourself!

Have you been up to more projects as of late? Your level of detailed approach is great and appreciated by so many other members. 

Katie

[ogosh]

Thanks @KatieC ,

Thanks so much.

Indeed I have.a new project up on the workshop community.. another industrial style furniture build.... see here:

https://www.workshop.bunnings.com.au/t5/Outdoor/Custom-industrial-outdoor-table/m-p/95329#M13937

Hope you like it.

Osher