17 Dollar DIY Desk - A Life Unfolding

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This is one of my favorite last-minute DIYs ever. We made a DIY desk for 17.00 dollars and a few hours of a desk, and I love how it turned out!

We have been working on the new Airbnb for a while now. The Primary bedroom was carved out of the previous extra large living space. Once we settled on the room plan, we still had this weird jut from the closet in the room next door, which we planned on being the perfect place for a desk.

So I went in search of a desk that was substantial enough for guests and yet attractive.

The space is quite wide (67 inches), and desks of that size were very expensive and simply not what I was looking for.

Then one day, we were at the Restore in our area looking for picture frames (they always have great frames) and came across this wooden door. And woot woot, it was $8.00! For that price, it was worth taking it home to see if it would work.

DIY Desk supplies

• Door- ours is 36 x 7 feet
• 7 ft piece of moulding
• 1- 1 x 2 wood board- We had this on hand
• Pneumatic nail gun
• Stud Finder-
• wood glue
• paint
• painters tape
• caulk

Desk Directions:

We cut the door down to fit the space using a circular saw. Our space is 67 inches wide.

The next step was to cut a 1 x 2 board into two pieces, each piece 36 inches, to act as the base for the door to lay on. These are screwed into the wall, and we made sure to find studs (and used anchors), so it won’t be going anywhere.

The Base:

I was surprised at how well it fit.

I taped off the edges of the desk while we were attaching it to the wall to prevent scuffs in the fresh paint.

We then cut the 3-inch trim moulding we found at Home Depot (clearance aisle as it had been cut wrong) to the end to give it a more polished feel.

We attached the moulding to the desk using a bead of wood glue and pneumatic nails to hold it until the glue dried.

Once the moulding was attached, we waited for 24 hours to paint.

Painting the desk:

If you follow the blog, you guys know I am a HUGE fan of Sherwin-Williams paint, and I LOVE their colors and am a fan of their Emerald line of paint performance.

But if you have been to a paint store lately, you may have noticed some shortages. My Sherwin-Williams store did not have any quart sizes available, which is all this door was going to require. So we went to our local big box store and had them color match a quart to our trim. I chose SW 9130 Evergreen Fog.

I am so happy to report it matches perfectly!

And the hole from the original door is perfect for cords!

With all the bargains we found, the DIY desk ended up costing 17.00 and change!

And we LOVE it!!! This 17-dollar DIY desk may be one of my favorite DIYs ever!

We’ve added a secondary coffee station for our guests, and we think they will love having a workspace in the Airbnb.

What do you think??

Until next time,

-Libbie

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