DIY Industrial Farmhouse Desk

Honeybear Lane
by Honeybear Lane
We recently completed a makeover on my friend’s front room–turning it into a home school room. We loved the desk in our inspiration picture, but she did an authentic butcher block desktop which cost her over $1000 and that definitely wasn’t in our budget. We decided to make a planked desktop to make the whole thing look like an industrial farmhouse desk. I’ve done this many times before so I was confident it would be fine.




Supplies: 
  • 1x4s
  • 1x6s
  • Kreg Jig
  • 1 1/4″ pocket hole screws
  • Nail gun
  • 1 1/4″ brad nails
  • Doorstop trim
  • Minwax Weathered Oak
  • Minwax Preconditioner
  • Minwax Polyurethane
  • Sanding bar
  • Miter saw
  • Circular saw
  • Three 2-drawer filing cabinets
  • Black spray paint


We had one filing cabinet so my friend searched Craigslist until she found two more 2-drawer filing cabinets and purchased them for a pretty cheap price.  Then she spray painted them black.  Easy.  Now for the tabletop…


The room was about 10 feet wide so we decided to build the tabletop from wood planks, in a staggered manner to achieve a butcher block effect.  We first made a frame from 1x4s then put the planked tabletop on top of it.


(Sorry these pictures are terrible-we did this at night on the driveway!)



We made the frame using the Kreg Jig.  Then we cut the other planks in varying lengths and pieced them together like a puzzle.



We also used the Kreg Jig to connect all the pieces together.  It’s always tricky to do it this way because common boards from Home Depot or Lowe’s are always a bit warped and not so straight.  So you just have to tell yourself  “it’s rustic!” and know that it’s not going to be perfect and you may have some gaps and some corners that stick up.  I actually really love the way it turned out. We finished it with some doorstop molding and stained and sealed it.
Honeybear Lane
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
Go
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
Comments
Join the conversation
 2 comments
Next