Every project has a learning curve - especially when it’s something you’ve never done before and my office built ins were no exception! Also if you are someone who is good at woodworking maybe just avert your eyes from this post.
To create this large built in desk - I needed an 11' 7” long desktop. So like a naive person who basically DIYs everything I figured I could just DIY this. With a jigsaw. And a miter saw that only cut up to 8” wide and only 2 clamps. I definitely did not have the right tools for the job. That was my first mistake.
My second mistake was deciding to order said boards for this desk online. I ordered these from Home Depot - and they were delivered to my house. I set out to build the desk right away. And proceeded to try and pocket screw 4 boards together. And…it went okay. But the boards definitely were not straight enough, which left me with some large spaces in between my boards. And they were not even with each other.
You can't tell from this picture but it was bad. Like real bad.
I decided to bring it inside anyways and see if I could salvage it. After waiting around a couple days and thinking about it - my husband had the idea to put wood veneer over it. So in an attempt to salvage the project - I did that. And it was okay….until I went to stain it. The veneer did not stain evenly. And it ended up looking splotchy.
I did use a wood conditioner and even gave it a very light sand. It just didn’t look great. So I took a risk and sanded down the whole entire wood veneer desk top - and restrained it. It looked okay, but it’s definitely not the dreamy stained oak even desk top I was looking for.
Every DIY project has it’s learning curve - and I know I know what to do better for next time. And that is hire someone else to make a large 11 foot by 2 foot desk for me. :)
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