Designing / Building a home study

[JS001]

Hi Everyone 

This is my first post.  I am in the middle of a whole house renovation.  It’s going well but as many of you would know the funds tend to evaporate before your eyes.  I am building a study (man cave)  at the front of the house for me to have my Mac and photography equipment setup.  Unfortunately the budget wont allow for custom cabinetry so I am going to need to be innovate and hack some off the shelf items.  I am fairly handy and have lots of tools so should be ok.  The room is approximately 3m x 2.4m.  One of the main features I am looking to make it a long desk the whole length of the room and a return.  If anyone has done something similar before would love to see your project.  I am going to need to source a 3 metre length of timber or laminate for the desktop.  I would like it to have the appearance that its floating with minimal legs / supports visible.  I will also need to join the 2 pieces of desktop.  I am thinking dowell joints maybe but would need a jig to get the holes to line up.  As the room is narrow the desk would probably be no more than 5-600mm wide.  Behind the desk I am thinking wall mounted bookcases.  Surprisingly these have been hard to find.  The best I can see at the moment is the Eket range from Ikea which are not quite ideal as I was more after a traditional looking bookcase than cubes.  I guess the other option could be to buy sheets of laminate and build them.  It seems hard to source MDF in anything other than white.  I am getting multiple GPOs and data point in the room so everything is networked.  The floor will be blond southern beech timber.  Any help with design or tips on construction would be much appreciated. 

PlanElectrical PlanThis is what it currently looks likeStudy to the right of main entranceI like this sleek contemporary style

[Jason]

Looks like a fantastic project @JS001. I'm sure our helpful community members would be happy to assist. Hope the rest of the renovation work is progressing well!

Let me extend a very warm welcome to Workshop. We're really pleased to have you join us and are confident you will receive loads of helpful information, advice and inspiration for all of your projects around the house and garden from our members. Please feel free to post whenever you need a hand or have something to share. We're looking forward to seeing more of your posts soon.

Jason

[gippslandhome]

Welcome to the community @JS001 

What an exciting project ahead. You will thoroughly enjoy the community spirit of willing helpers and those sharing with us their awesome skills.

In regards to your project, I thought I would share one idea that I have just started myself.

It's a very cheap option for furniture in both materials and labour because you can do it all by yourself and you sound very handy 👍

Google Galvanized Pipe Furniture

There is a load of ideas.

Everything is at Bunnings depending on your choice of tops.

I'm doing my own furniture projects now and will be sharing them with the community soon.

You may love it or may hate it but I just thought I would share one option.

All the best and hope to see your finished project.

Kind regards Rob 👍

[ProjectPete]

You've got some fun on your hands @JS001 and I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

In regards to the floating effect for you desk, here's an install I did of a 2880mm laminate desk. The floating effect is pretty straight forward and will be even easier is fixing to timber frame.

I'd suggest doing your join perpendicular to your 3000mm wall, ie. you'll have a 2500mm length (assuming your width/depth is 500mm) and a 1900mm length with the angle cut for the portion of the wall with the TV. However you decide to do the join (dowel joints will be fine), put a heavy duty L bracket under it for support/strength. Fill any slight gap with colour-matched silicone.

Bunnings has plenty of non-white MDF. The white stuff is normally melamine.

Bunnings also has the 60mm cable ducts in a range fo colour for a clean finish (hiding plugs under desk).

Enjoy!

[JS001]

Thanks Pete.  

Much appreciated.  I did see your desk project.  Nice job.  The walls I am mounting to are brick / render so will be harder to hide the brackets.  I could probably paint them the same colour as the wall.   My electrician has put in some 32mm conduit in walls where we are running TVs. I have a lot of planning into the wiring of the house which I would recommend to anyone doing a big renovation.  It’s so much easier to do it when the walls are apart than later. 

[ProjectPete]

You'll see from my install, I cut into the plaster/render to set the bracket then patched over it so you can't see it. Are you able to do this or are you installing on exposed brick?

[JS001]

No the brackets are going onto Render.  I could probably chase into it with a grinder come to think of it. What do you suggest for spacing of the brackets. 

[ProjectPete]

Easy done with the grinder - it's worth the effort for the seamless/floating effect @JS001 

I'd space roughly every 800mm given the size and weight and what you're planning to use it for - make sure you get the HD 6mm brackets. Sneak some smaller HD brackets like these in between to give the desk a good hold against the wall. I don't think I'm explaining that properly and how it helps with the hold - does it make sense to you?

[JS001]

Yes it makes sense mate all good

[Former Workshop member]

G'day @JS001 

Mate I am currently doing something very similar to Pete's example and just wanted to offer another possible option for fixing to the wall...however I will caveat that Pete's example is the KISS approach in terms of getting the floating effect AND ensuring that the shelf/desk is sufficiently 'load bearing' 

I am doing a similar 'floating desk/shlef' type of option in my WIR (shelves 1230mm long) and a recess in my dining room (1750mm long). The recess unit I haven't completely been through how I will do it...but with the WIR shelves I have a similar 'arrangement' in that they are an 'L' shape.

What I am doing is placing a 'ledger' (a horizontal piece of material) on the four parts of the L...or in Pete's case he would have three - without doing a drawing I hope that makes sense! - and simply fixing them to the wall (wall plugs and screws). The shelf goes on top of the ledgers, then a front piece of timber is put across the remaining two front sides of the 'L' shape. (in Pete's example there would be only the front one piece).

I hope that makes sense...there are a number of ways to do it like I have described - and actually there is a backyard makeover here on the Bunnings DIY where they did it to a backyard seat that had a huge span - but let me know if you can't follow that and I will take some photos!

Again just make sure that the front piece matches the expected load! I am doing shelves to a walk in robe so there is no need to be too concerned about loading. With a desk you absolutely have to think about having all desktop items on there and sitting on there as well - although I don't believe that is an 'Australian Standard' loading description  I sort of think of it as a 'rule of thumb'. 

If that doesn't make sense (and you are interested) let me know and I can take some photos and maybe find that Bunnings backtard... (EDIT: yes I did see it after posting...'t' is right next to 'y'; come on! I left it though because it made me chuckle when I read it)

Sweet work as well @ProjectPete  mate...that's a nicely done table and kudos for working with laminate (I think I am 50/50 'not comfortable with my skills' and 'not a huge fan of the finish' to try laminate - but it is funny how 'confidence in your ability' effects the way you design things - so I'd guess those percentages are a little biased ).

Anyway I did want to ask what piece of timber you used? It looked like chipboard/particleboard...?

Oh and that is something I should add...obviously in the wardrobe they are only shelves so it is painted 18mm MDF; however the recess will be drawers with a table top so I will have to look at that design. I have also seen some YouTube vids using wood or steel dowel that is set into the wall as a means of joining to the wall...that is how I will do my kitchen shelves...at this rate that will be sometime next decade d'oh!

Cheers