Our New Pallet Desk

I knew it wouldn’t be long before my husband came up with another project to make with Pallet wood :).  He has needed a desk for years now with working from home and I have never been able to talk him into buying one. When he works from home he usually goes down to the basement which is the quietest room in the house.  We were told that our basement had once been our farmhouse’s barn, then a garage and was later connected to the house and refinished.  Because our basement is used mostly for Lego building, video game playing and the occasional ping pong game we wanted to make sure his new desk didn’t take up too much floor space.  We decided to make a double desk so that more than one person could work there and place it under one of the windows.  The pallet desk we made is 8 feet by 18 inches so it could fit perfectly between our side wall and the bump out and not take up too much floor space.

Pallet Desk

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We used 2 pallets to make the desk.  First, Jason took apart the pallets and cut them down to use as wood for the top, front and sides of the desk.  To see how we take apart a pallet you can find that in this post here.

Next, a desk frame was made of 2 by 3’s.

The pallet wood was then attached around the frame first to the front and sides with a pin nailer in order to hide the 2 by 3 wood.

Next the pallet wood was added to the top of the desk in a staggered manner making sure the ends of the board landed on one of the 2 x 3 boards in the frame.

Pallet wood has so much character to it and in my opinion looks beautiful.  Jason sanded the pallet wood smooth with our favorite 15 year old orbital sander, DEWALT DWE6423K Variable Speed Random Orbit Sander, 5″

We decided the wood looked perfect after it was sanded and decided not to stain the wood.

Jason attached the desk to the wall at the studs with 3″ screws.  To support the front of the desk and make the desk look a little more formal we added 2 painted white table legs from Lowes to both sides on the front corners.  These were attached to the 2×3 frame with 3″ screws as well.  At less than $20 each they seemed like a bargain to us verses having to cut, sand and paint legs of our own.

In total, our pallet desk cost less than $50 to make.  A fantastic value for an 8 foot wide desk.

Lastly, Jason drilled a hole in the top of the desk for the computer and monitor cords to go through.  Jason loves using his forstner drill bits (found here PORTER-CABLE PC1014 Forstner Bit Set, 14-Piece)  in furniture making because the bits allow for drilling a nice clean hole every time.

Tips we wanted to give you on Smart Cord Management

Under the desk we drilled  3″ screws into the 2 by 3 frame to wrap the cords around and keep them off the ground and hidden from view.

We also added a few screws to hold up the power strip as well.

 

He now finally has a desk at home after well over a decade :).  Now to just find him 2 comfy desk chairs :).

For now we are using 2 white chairs from Ikea that we borrowed from our dining room.

We still have 2 more pallets in our garage for more pallet projects that we will be sharing with you soon :).  Thanks so much for stopping by to check our new pallet desk!

Don’t forget to Pin our Pallet Desk!

You may also like these diy projects from Lehman lane…

5 Pallet Projects to Try

DIY – Built in Desk

DIY – Secretary Turned into Desk and Dresser