Menu headline

Simple Desk

A stylish, easy-to-build workstation

I needed a place to do deskwork without taking my laptop and setting up camp on the kitchen table. I wanted something attractive and sturdy that was also relatively lightweight, knock down, and easy to repurpose as needed. After noodling about with these criteria in mind, I decided on this design that features removable hardwood legs and a laminated plywood top with a drawer to hold my laptop and other bits and bobs. The build was quite straightforward, and relatively simple. The drawer depth is limited by the apron width, but that is really the only constraint. The desk is light enough for one person to move and sturdy enough for just about any use. Making the legs detachable makes the desk much easier to move, store, or even ship. All that is needed for disassembly is a 7/16” wrench or socket. You can simplify the construction by omitting the drawer if you like, and then the legs will fit within the apron to make storage (and shipping) even easier.

Clean lines and simple joinery

The legs and aprons are made from cherry—chosen for its color, durability, and availability—though nearly any species will work. The top is Baltic birch plywood with plastic laminate applied to both sides and its edges left exposed. The two-part legs meet in a lock miter joint at the corners. The aprons are pocket screwed together at the corners and also pocket screwed to the underside of the top. The front apron is cut into four parts and reglued to keep the grain continuous across the drawer front. The drawer sides and back are made from precut and finished stock (See Buyer’s Guide below) and are joined with simple lock rabbet joints.

Make the legs

Cut the eight leg blanks to size and joint one edge of each piece. At the router table, set up the lock miter bit and rout the lock miters on all leg blanks. I used MicoJig’s lock miter bit (see Buyer’s Guide) for its ease of set up. Glue the mating pairs together before tapering them at the table saw.

Set up is critical! Set the bit height with the help of MicroJig’s Fit Finder. Then adjust the fence so that its front plane intersects with the bit’s edge at a point that matches the material thickness.

Half and half. Rout four of your blanks with their inside face flat on the table. Rout the other four with their inside face against the fence to create mating pairs.

Glue up. Apply glue along the miter cuts and fit the pieces together. Clamp in both directions. Be careful not to use too much glue as it may keep the pieces from seating.

Taper the outside edges. I taper on the table saw by attaching a fence to a carrier board at the appropriate angle. These legs required two setups, the second with the leg rotated end-for-end and the fence repositioned.

Make the top

After cutting the top to size, radius the corners to make them friendlier. Then apply laminate to the top surface. A lot of times, you’d want to laminate both surfaces to prevent warping, but here the aprons serve to keep the top flat. Flush trim the laminate, then rout a 1/8” deep 45°chamfer around both the top and bottom edges. Mill the aprons to thickness, but leave them about 1/4” over-long and over-wide for now. Rip the front apron to the width of the drawer front. Crosscut the drawer front to length, then glue the remaining three pieces of the front apron back together. Cut all four aprons to their finish size and pocket screw them together at the corners. Also cut the drawer supports to size and pocket screw them in place. Drill clearance holes for the leg assembly bolts before pocket screwing the apron assembly to the underside of the top.

Reassemble the apron. After cutting the drawer face free, carefully mark the pieces for alignment. Then glue the two sides to the top rail using some laminate scraps as spacers for the gap on each side of the face.

Round the corners. I used a top bearing bit in conjunction with a template to rout the 1” radius on the corners.

Make the drawer

Cut the drawer box parts to size. I used precut and prefinished plywood sides and bottom on this build to save time and effort. And by choosing plywood, the bottom can be glued in place for a stronger drawer. The lock rabbet joint is my go-to for an easy and quick way to make drawers. One tool setup is all you need to cut all your drawer joints. Chuck a 1/4” bit in your router table, or mount a 1/4” dado on your table saw (shown) and adjust the cutter height to half the stock thickness. Cut dados at the ends of the sides and rabbet the ends of the front and back. Also cut a 1/4” groove for the bottom in all four pieces. After gluing the parts together I added some brads through the joints to keep everything together while the glue sets.

Dado the sides. With a sliding auxiliary fence in place, adjust the fence so the distance from it to the cutter equals the cutter thickness. Dado the sides, pushing them through the cut with a miter gauge.

Rabbet the front and back. Without moving the fence, clamp a vertical backer board to it. Clamp the sides to the fence in front of the backer and rabbet their ends. Be sure to keep the same face against the fence for both cuts.

Slide and glue. Don’t forget to insert the drawer bottom before you attach the final piece of the drawer box. A few brads driven through the joints add reinforcement and serve as clamps.

Assemble

The drawer runs on full extension drawer slides. Cut a 1-3/4” wide spacer to make installation easier. Position the drawer slides with the spacer and screw them to the insides of the supports as shown. Lay out center lines for the slides on the sides of the drawer box and screw the removable portion of the slides in place along these lines. The ends of these pieces should be flush with the front of the box. Make a drill guide to help in positioning the 3/8” diameter leg-mounting holes in the aprons as well as the threaded insert pilot holes in the back of the legs. Drill four holes per leg and four holes in each corner of the apron assembly. Add a jam nut to a 1/4” bolt to install the threaded inserts. Bolt the legs in place then slide the drawer into its opening. Position the drawer face, holding it temporarily with double-faced tape while you fasten it to the box with screws driven through the box’s front. Add your favorite finish to wrap things up. I used Odie’s Oil.

Guaranteed parallelism. Installing the slide with the help of a spacer ensures that it will be parallel with the underside of the top and that both sides will be level with each other.

Guided drilling. My drill guide is a scrap of plywood with two holes spaced as shown in the Apron Detail (above). On the legs, clamp it flush with the end as you drill. For the aprons, hold it against the underside of the top and flush with the outside corner.

Back to blog Back to issue

Related Categories

  • Wood

    Wood
  • Power Tools & Accessories

    Power Tools & Accessories
  • Dimensional Lumber

    Dimensional Lumber
  • Hand Sanding Tools

    Hand Sanding Tools