Teen DIY Industrial Desk

My son loves to play video games on his laptop. I wanted him to have a space he loves and also a spot to hold some of his treasures. 
This whole project was less than $300 for the first 7 items on the supply list. We already had 7-13. This desk took only a few hours to put together after you have all the supplies. 

Now, this isn’t the first industrial desk built out there in this big ol’ world, but I wanted this one to be a lot easier to build than some of the others. My goal was to make a big impact but with as little supplies as possible & little or no damage to the floor and walls. Buying the metal pipes on amazon is too much cheaper then buy them at Home Depot, just FYI. I also searched everywhere for budget friendly filing cabinets, they are so expensive. If you find a better deal let me know in the comments. 

Supplies List:
1.  2 filing cabinets

2.  Pipe brackets  (screws included) 

3.  3 -2×10 

4.  8 – 7.5 in. Wood Round Taper Table Leg

5.  10Pcs 3/4-inch Floor Flange Pipe

6. Pipe Decor 3/4” x 12”

7. Desk Top

8. Dark Walnut Stain  (or your favorite)

9.  Matte black spray paint

10. Electric sander

11. cordless screw driver (you can use a reg one but it will be a lot more work!)

12.   1/2″ screws

13.   Measure tape/ level 

You might not have 8′ of space to work with, which is okay. You can make this desk smaller, just not longer. Home Depot will cut all the wood for you, for free. So before ordering the supplies(I recommend ordering them online and picking up in store, makes it so much easier.  They even will load them in your vehicle) make sure you measure how long you want the desk first.  

Step 1.
Spray paint the 8 legs matte black. I wanted these legs to blend in with the file cabinets to make it look like they came that way. When the legs are dry my husband flipped the cabinets up side down to attach the legs. The back legs were positioned slight different then the front (you will see). Set the cabinets in place. 
Step 2.Being that the top piece of plywood was 8′ we didn’t need to cut it. I sanded it down real good and rounded the edges a bit before applying my favorite stain. Once that’s done, we set the desk top on the cabinets. Next, we took the top drawer out and used 1/2″ screws to secure the wood to the metal cabinet from inside. The plywood is 3/4″ so 1/2″ screws will be perfect to secure it. We use 4 screws for each cabinet in each corner.

Step 3.
Now the 2×10’s will defiantly need to be cut down.  They were origally 10′ so we cut ours to 8′. Home depot will do this for you. 
The bottom shelf I wanted broken up so I could hang stuff on the wall and give the space a little more character. This is totally up to you. If you want to save a little bit of time and money you can make it the same as the top two shelves and you won’t have to buy numbers 5 & 6 in the supply list. We cut the bottom board to 32″ each.  
Step 4. Hang your piping. Your measurement would be the same if you are building the 8′ desk.  It doesn’t have to be started in a corner. I like seeing things drawn out so here are the measurement we used. It not a perfect diagram but it should do. 

Pro tip:

The top boards sit on the piping with no issues, they are pretty heavy. The piping kit came with little silver brackets you can spray paint and attach under each pipe.  We only did this for the two smaller shelves for extra stability.   

Jessie Thomas

5 Comments on “Teen DIY Industrial Desk”

  1. How tall are the legs and filing cabinets? It almost seems like the desk would be too tall based on some of the filing cabinets I have found.

  2. How are the legs attached to the filing cabinet? Are pictures possible? Where did you purchase the legs?

    1. They have a thread at the top of each leg..so we screwed them on. Im not sure why the link wasn’t working, I’ve fixed it now. So just click on it under the supply list above.

  3. Pingback: My Home Rug Round Up | Jessie Thomas Deigns

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