Posted by: Becca
Our office was OK for occasional use, but with two of us needing somewhere to work on a regular basis it was not cutting it. Plus, it was lame looking.

We looked at desks everywhere, but could not find something we liked. So, we decided to make our own. Which really means Kyle would make them. He started with four eight foot long, four foot wide and 3/4 inch thick pieces of plywood. Two of the four pieces were 'fancy' plywood (hardwood plywood with birch veneer). They were used for the visible portion of the desktop. Two pieces were cut down to 8 x 2 and combined to make a 1.5 inch thick surface. The other two were cut down to 6 x 3 and also combined. They were sanded, stained, and polyurethaned. My minor contribution besides taking pictures and holding things was staining and polyurethaning. We went with a red mahagony stain and satin polyurethane.

We ordered a couple of file cabinets to use as legs, and Kyle made tops and bottoms to increase the height of the cabinets and to attach them to the desktop.

Here one of the file cabinets is sitting in its new base.

Now with the top added.

Here I am in my staining 'sweatshop'. Many brain cells were killed that day. That was the stinkiest thing I have ever done.

Here is one new desk.

And the other work space.

Adding my desk took away a lot of shelves. The solution to the lost storage space came in the form of an unused closet. Kyle added six shevles and made it into an awesome bookshelf!

We're not done with our office makeover. Still to come is a new bookshelf to replace this guy...

a slightly less make shift home for the plants, and hopefully a ceiling fan that better matches our new 'look'.