Shelving desk legs

I basically used 8 2x4's-worth of wood for that butcher block, it is damn heavy. Flipping it to sand each side has been an adventure, so I've had to re-think my plan for the legs a little. Initially I was thinking a shelf on one side, with two of the old table's metal legs on the other. I'm not sure that's enough now, so with a second plywood board around why not make a shelf for each side and then run the legs along the back of the desk.

That's straight enough. Now I just have to build a 2nd one just like it.

I threw the first shelf together without any real plan. Split the plywood, cut it to the approximate height of the metal legs, and use the extras as the shelves. Things came together nice enough, but after putting so much work into the top I wasn't really feeling the visible lamination layers. Time to figure something out to cover those. No surprise here, this build has spiraled pretty far beyond what I first envisioned, but at least I had proof of concept that the shelves would work.

Okay, I like where we're headed.

Thankfully, following the same steps got me a second cabinet similar enough to use on the other side of the desk. To cover the edges, I trimmed some leftover 2x4 into .5" cubes to glue on as edging. Would buying some veneer been easier? Probably. But using what I already had sounded a lot more appealing than another trip to a store. It's damn cold out.

More glue, some brad nails, and lots of time.

Okay, a little mismatched but those will hold some books

They might have looked good, but they ended up about a quarter inch shorter than the old legs and I couldn't squeeze one in to fit under the top when I tested things out. Whoops. I panicked for a second, but then I realized I could easily route some placeholders for the top plates or whatever they're called. Hey, if you've got the tools you've got the talent, why not let it rip.

The bottom doesn't have to be pretty, the top just has to be level.

This really slowed me down, since I can't really hammer or router when I'm working at night once the kids are in bed. But the final version of this project is rounding into shape in my head and I like how it's looking. With the edges covered and some hardboard on the back, I think everything is ready to get stained and even better, I can use the shelves to hold the top while I work on that. Now I just have to figure out what I'm actually going to use, then I can worry about where to put this all together.

charging stand

With so much plywood left over, I thought it might be fun to cut together a quick charger stand for my phone and watch. A project that uses scrap and helps keep my space organized is my kind of project.

There are plenty of these out there, so I didn't go off any particular plan again. Two squares that interlock with cut out joints creating a shelf, plus a half-circle cut out to put my watch on. Simple.

2nd test-fit. Good to go.

My first cuts had the shelf higher than I wanted, so I traced the shape and cut out another square, this time with the cut-out lower. It gave me another shot at cutting the circle out with the jig saw, which helped. A sanding drum on the dremel helped get it a little more symmetrical too.

Looks alright for plywood, if you don't look too long at the sides.

Our bedroom furniture is walnut, so I used my walnut stain in the hopes of getting a good match. It's not terrible but this stain is getting pretty old and is about done. Doesn't look too bad though.

At this point I was considering adding an extra shelf at the top to put my glasses on overnight, but decided against it. I liked how it looked just as a plain board, and I think that was the right way to go.

Final product

A few coats of poly to keep it smooth, and after some glue to keep it together and some felt pads we're ready to go upstairs.

Just don't look at the back side.

Once it was up there I velcro'd my watch charger in place, which is temporary but sturdy enough to last for now. Since I'm not using a samsung phone anymore my neo isn't quite as functional as it once was but still does what I need it to do. The stand helps keep things tidy on my nightstand, so mission accomplished.

Garage/reading room

I had some wood shelving that was up in the condo but hasn't found a home in the new house yet that I've been wanting to put to work, and the shop getting reorganized this week gave me chance to let inspiration strike. The wife got me a book on wood finishing for christmas, and I've been reading Nick Offerman's "Good Clean Fun" which is big into keeping clean and organized so inspiration most definitely struck. I was going to put the shelves up in the basement once we had things set up, but using them as bookshelves in the garage seems like a much better place for them.

Testing...

and confirmed. Yup, that'll work.

So instead of evacuating while the lacquer fumes evaporated like I probably should have, I put one over the drafting table's new spot. I liked it so much the other one got put up too. They still need a coat or two of poly that they never got since we were staging and getting ready to move when these first went up but I think that will work. I'm still not sure the table is going to stay, but having move shelves in the garage means more storage space for non-tools that were taking up valuable real estate.

Now all I need is a broken down recliner and a mini-fridge, and I'll never leave the garage. I'm half joking, but being forced to re-organized has made it a lot more comfortable in there. It's a good lesson to learn and again, I'm amazed at how things are still rounding into shape after more than a year in the house.

So where does everything go now?

I was surprisingly hesitant to take all of our holiday decorations down this year. Usually everything is back to boxes in time for New Years, but for whatever reason no one was in any kind of rush to put things away. Part of it for me was probably not really wanting to admit it was time to go back to work but a bigger part was probably just everyone enjoying the season and not wanting it to be boring old January.

But you have to move on eventually, so I spent my last day off boxing up the extra tree, taking our outdoor lights down, and trying to figure out where everything is going to go. It didn’t help that I couldn’t stop buying extra decorations now that things are down to 90% off everywhere but that’s not important…

An extra tree meant a new tree box, and that was my first stop. Our old tree is still getting boxed up in the cardboard it came with, but this one got dropped off w/o a box in several pieces. I got the biggest, cheapest one I could find at wally-mart. Not really DIY but probably cheaper that way. Even then, it was barely big enough. But the tree has a new home under the stairs, and I did get to move some closet organization tools around to make it happen.

Already buried under halloween decorations

And what are these?

That took care of the tree, but there are still boxes and rubbermaids sitting around wondering where they’re going to go, not to mention all the other second-hand stuff that don’t even have containers to go into yet. This is usually when I introduce the fantastic project I’ve put together to address the issue that’s been raised but so far I’ve got nothing…hopefully that changes in the near future but for now the only DIY I’m doing is trying to fit these into spaces that are too small.