Build Mother's Easy, Low-cost Big Desk

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Almost Done

Your project doesn’t look much like a desk right now, but you’re almost there. Get some help to stand the two side frames upright, then temporarily nail on the two long skirts reusing two 1½-inch finishing nails hammered most of the way into the board where a pair of 6-inch carriage bolts will go later. Select bolt positions that won’t interfere with bolts you’ve already installed.

This assembly won’t be very strong yet, but it does allow the entire frame to stand while you adjust the legs so they’re plumb, and while you level the long skirts. When you’ve got everything right, remove one nail from a single corner joint, drill a bolt hole right through and then install a carriage bolt. Repeat the process until all four corners have four bolts each.

The desktop needn’t be rigidly fastened to the support frame. Simply put it in position with equal desktop overhang, then crawl underneath the table with a pencil and mark where the inside edges of the long and short skirts meet the underside of the desktop. Lift the desktop off, flip it over and screw strips of scrap wood to the bottom surface, aligned inside the pencil marks. These form cleats that prevent the desktop from sliding on its support frame when it’s back in place.

Desk enhancements

One of the beautiful things about this desk is how easily it can be folded flat and stored. Just lift the desktop off the skirt and remove one bolt from the long skirt side on each corner where the leg and skirt connect. This allows the remaining bolt to serve as a pivot point to fold the legs inward.

If you want, you can enhance the desk by adding a desktop backboard and sideboards. This three-sided frame helps to contain paperwork, stray pencils and books, but there’s a trade-off: A top frame limits the usefulness of the desk as a table.

If you opt for a desktop frame, begin by cutting the back and side pieces to length. Use Fig. C as a pattern to mark the curves on the sideboards. Follow the outline with a hand-held jigsaw or coping saw, then sand smooth.

Join the desktop’s backboard and sides together from underneath the desktop, using No. 8 wood screws, and glue the U-shaped frame to your desktop, using large clamps to hold the desktop and frame together. Scrape away any half-hard glue that squeezed out using the square corner of a metal ruler, putty knife or slot screwdriver.

An optional bottom shelf boosts the usefulness of the desk, and adding one is simple. Any three-fourths-inch plywood or solid lumber that extends from one side brace to the other will do just fine. But with a span of more than 6 feet, you’ll have to do something to keep the shelf from sagging under its load. Adding a 3-inch-wide skirt along the back and front edges of the shelf will further stiffen it.

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