My Dad was a man with brilliant ideas. He was a DIYer before that became a household term. Remodeling both bathrooms, painting old pieces of furniture to give them new life and building beds for my brother and I were just a few of the projects he did back in the day.
He also had an idea for building a fully customizable desk on a budget. I loved the desk my Dad made for me because it was big enough to spread out all my textbooks & homework with room to spare. The best part is my parents didn’t have to spend an arm and a leg for it!
My Dad passed away in 2009. Now that he’s gone, I’m realizing more and more how much I miss him. One way I love to remember my Dad is to do DIY projects.
I took the inspiration from my Dad & made my own DIY desk on a budget. I think he’d be proud of it!
Dad really knew what he was doing! I love this desk because it’s totally customizable. I was able to choose the size and make sure all the components met my needs.
This is the perfect weekend project that is easy enough for anyone to do! This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. See my full disclosure here.
DIY Desk On A Budget Materials:
- 2 file cabinets I love this file cabinet with a small drawer for office supplies on top & big drawers to file papers. (If you need a less expensive option, try this one.)
- Plywood or an old door
- stain or paint in your choice of color (if desired)
- polyurethane in your choice of sheen (if desired)
Desk Accessories:
- space-saving vertical paper organizer
- Acrylic lamp and lamp shade
Directions:
1) Choose functional filing cabinets as the base of your desk. The filing cabinets will serve two purposes: it will hold up the desk top and store office items. I chose two file cabinets similar to this because they have tons of room for filing papers and a drawer at the top for office supplies.
2) Select a desk top. We bought a discounted unfinished wood board from our local home improvement store for about $20 and used it as our desk surface.
An old door can be used for the desk surface as well! That’s what my Dad did when he built my childhood desk. He patched up the hole where the doorknob was, painted it white and set it on top of white cabinets.
3) Customize the desk surface. My hubby sanded the top and the edges to give it smooth corners. Next, he stained the wood with this stain and coated it with a layer of satin polyurethane to seal it.
If you decide to stain your desk top, test out the stain first to make sure you have the color you want. Also be sure to allow enough time for the surface to dry before installing the desk. We let the stain sink in to the surface overnight to ensure it was completely dry.
The Finished Project:
Our desk has plenty of space to spread out, just like the desk my Dad made for me when I was a kid!
I absolutely LOVE how the top turned out!
My home office is now a beautiful place to work and be inspired!
We accessorized the desk with a lovely lamp that really gives the office area a warm feel. My hubby gave the lamp and lamp shade to me last year for my birthday! Still to this day it’s one of my most favorite birthday presents.
If you’re looking for an online source for a similar lamp, I found this lamp (but it’s more expensive)
Who knew a piece of plywood & 2 filing cabinets would turn out so lovely & functional?
This easy project was shared at: Project Inspire{d}, DIY Like A Boss, Tutorials and Tips, and Create it Thursday.
This is the best I have seen in a very long time! Love the combination of the dark top with the black. Looks very upscale. And those particular cabinets solve many space challenges. The lamp gives it just the right amount of glam.
Off to redo my office I go!
Thank you Kathy!! We love the combination of black and the dark wood top too. Have fun with your office project!
Hello, I realized that you had a great admiration for your father and that you also loved what he did, and I am sure that if you saw his dedication and commitment to building his own table he would be very proud of you.
Your desk is beautiful. Is the stain Cherry? Did you secure the wood desktop to the file cabinets or is it just laying up there?
Thank you Faye! We used a combination of a cherry stain on top of a walnut stain to get just the color we wanted. If you use just a cherry stain the look will be similar to my desk, just a little bit lighter.
The desk surface rests on top of the filing cabinets just fine so we did not secure it to the filing cabinets. I hope that helps! Let me know if you have any other questions 🙂
Perfect the only thing I would change was to take the clock out of the way so I did not keep track of my time at all times 🙂
Great post Congratulations!
Thank you Jessica!!
This is an awesome setup – Love the dark stain against that black really sets it off.
Thanks Carole! The richness of the dark stain is one of my favorite parts about the desk.
What a great way to repurpose some old filing cabinets! Love the stain color you chose too! PINNING!!
The dark stain really gave the desk a more upscale look. I’m glad you like it too & thanks so much for the pinning this!
Wow. That turned out great! I bet every time you walk into your office you smile at your beautiful desk! I’ve seen some others using file cabinets but yours is by far the most dramatic and professional looking. Love your fam pic too!
Thank you Val! We really tried to make it look as nice as we could just using cabinets and wood. I’m so glad we built our own because it saved us a lot of money!
What a great desk! This reminds me of when I was in college and needed a sewing table for my dorm room and I took some heavy duty crates and then plywood to make one – not quite as pretty as yours but it worked for me to sew on.
I like your idea to use crates and plywood for a desk! I bet a lot of great sewing projects were done there! Thanks so much for sharing your idea with us!
Very cool. I would have never thought to combine file cabinets and a table top. Huge space saver and budget saver. Well done!
It really is the best way to make a desk on a budget! Glad you liked it Dean!
Carrie! I absolutely love this idea, and would never think of purchasing filing cabinets! In fact I already have some filing cabinets that I could paint if I wanted to, and this project would be extremely cheap for me! I’ve been wanting to do something to my office for the longest! My husband is going to be off for two weeks the end of December! He is just going to love me!! We already have plans to give our main room a new paint color, and I would love to add this to our list! LOL 🙂
How exciting that you already have filing cabinets! That’s what I really love about this desk–it’s really affordable! You’ll have to keep me updated and let me know how your desk (and new living room color!) turns out!