Easy DIY Wood Crate Desk – Perfect for Homeschool!

11 Materials
$100
2 Hours
Medium

Do you need a homeschool desk or a desk for working from home? Build this simple wood crate desk! This easy DIY desk is cheap to build and has storage for school supplies and books.

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Before Picture

Here’s what the space looked like before! It was just a simple little corner of the small studio apartment.




Step 1. Cut down plywood.

Start by cutting your plywood down to size with a table saw. We left ours at the 4 foot width and cut a piece 30″ deep, so the total size of the plywood sheet is 30″ x 48″. (See note below why I’d recommend that you cut it down to 31″ instead).


How to cut plywood without a table saw:

  • You can try getting the wood cut when you purchase at Home Depot or Lowe’s.
  • You can also use a circular saw with a rip fence, or a Kreg Rip-Cut Guide or clamp down another piece of wood to use a guide for your circular saw, which we did in this tutorial (see step in this post for pictures of how we set that up)



Step 2. Attach framing & trim.

To attach the trim to the edges, use wood glue and nail into place with 1.5″ finish nails.


Step 3. Fill nail holes & sand.

Fill all nail holes on trim with wood putty. Once putty has dried, sand to smooth and while you’re at it – give everything a nice light sanding.


Step 4. Seal.

Apply 3-4 coats of polyurethane to seal with staining rag. Lightly sand in between coats with 220 grit sandpaper. Let it dry throughout before handling.

Step 5. Attach 4 wood crates together.

Arrange the crates and hold flush while using a brad nailer with 1 inch nails to secure the crates at the end.


Be sure to only nail the crates on the ends because that wood is thicker (3/4″) and the slats of the crates are 1/4″ thick. Together that is an inch and we’re using 1 inch nails.



Step 6. Place desk top on.

Simply lay the desktop on top of the crates and make sure they are centered.

Step 7. Secure crate desk to wall.

Using corner brackets, secure the crates and/or the desktop to the wall.



So there you have it! An easy DIY desk made out of wood crates, plywood and some trim pieces and that’s IT! So simple, right?


If you are needing a budget-friendly homeschool desk or working from home desk, this easy wood crate desk is perfect!


If you love this DIY wood crate desk,  check out all of my DIY wood projects tutorials in the archive here!

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Chelsea @ Making Manzanita
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2 of 5 comments
  • Sallie Josh Sallie Josh on Feb 09, 2021

    This is such a super awesome idea! I've been looking months for the perfect desk & I just found it!

  • Dawn Martin Dawn Martin on Mar 24, 2023

    I've been searching for a desk with lots of storage. Thank you

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