# Home-made Recording Studio Desk(IMG heavy)



## Najka

So I wanted a desk with a lot of workspace. Even cheap small desks are a lot of money.. I decided to try and make one. It came out pretty well, so here is what I did. Anyone else who is going to attempt this can hopefully find some use out of this thread. I really saved a ton of money, and I have something that is nice and unique. The entire project took me a week to complete, between cutting the wood with my hand saw, sanding, letting the stain and poly dry and clean up. I spent about 2 hours a day, but it was well worht it.

It is 8x4, so I have plenty of room, it's killer. It doubles as a work bench! 


I started off by walking into Home Depot, I literally just winged this whole process. I have little carpenter skills, so don't judge.

Tools: Power drill

Hand Saw

Brush

Sandpaper/sand block








I found a big piece of wood, yay!
29.99, 8x5 sheet of wood.. cool.


I grabbed a couple 2X4's from the cheap wood bin, and had the Home Depot employe cut them both into 8 35" pieces. 
I had him cut the 8x5 sheet of wood length ways about a foot from the top.





Okay, if you are an amature carpenter like myself, do yourself a favor, and drill holes in the wood before you attempt to put the screws in. 
For extra strength, I paired the pieces togther to make the legs like so..











Bam, screwed the legs right onto the table top. 






I picked up some cheap 8' pieces of wood, they were $2.99 a pop. connected all the legs along the bottom, to keep the foundation sturdy. I kept the front of the desk open.









with some of the left over scraps from the base of the desk I fashioned them together, screwed them to the top of the desk, and laid the 1x8' piece of wood cut off the 8x5 on top. (hope I'm not confusing you, the pictures should explain)










Looks like a desk now! If you are doing this your self make sure to are taking very good measurments, and you use a wood block or somethig to make the cuts nice and even. I just scored the wood where I wanted to cut with a pencil and hacked away at it with the saw. I ended up having to force pieces together. bad mojo. 





screwed a peice on each side, help reinforce the desk and gave it a cleaner look. ( I'm totally just winging everything here)





Bam. Now the top part is nice and sturdy! thanks to my trusty power drill and my ingenious meticulously placed pieces of scrap wood. 





Bam, I don't know, it looks cool. 





Planning on putting the computer here, so it's off the ground (never happends..)





8' piece along the back, it really helped with keeping the top piece more sturdy. 





I found a 1"x8' strip of molding, fit perfectly over the edge. nice little touch.
I used liquid Nails to adhease it. 
This is also out if the molding section. They had all kinds of stuff that you could use to ornate your desk. 











Sand the desk Before you apply the stain. Please, do not skip this, I tried to and it came out like S***.
Also, Don't use the Poly/Stain all in one..it sucks. I stained the whole desk with it. Came out horrible, so I barrowed my friends power sander, and sanded the whole desk again. Big fat waste of time. 
I went back and got the stain called "honey" and a can of Poly. I applied the stain with a rag, gave it a couple coats. Then applied the poly. I put 3 coats of poly on mine. Put it on light. I didn't sand in between coats because I was afraid it would scuff the poly up. Next time I do this, I plan to get the finest sandpaper I can find and lightly sand in between coats to keep the surface smooth. Invest in a decent brush when applying the poly. It will suck when pieces of your cheap brush start falling off onto you hard work. 






yay! now my whole apartment wreaks of poly.
I put a 2x4 under the top sheet of wood, about 7 inches from the front edge to act as support, to keep the top less flimsy. Then I added this handy keyboard shelf. I found it at Office Max. 










I also picked up a sweet chair at Office Max!
Bam studio desk! total cost: $90, i could have spent less if I had not bought that stupid Polyshades all in one stain/poly. 







You should watch The Decent, it's pretty brutal. 

Thanks for taking the time to check this out!


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## TraitorsEyes

damn, that's sexy.


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## AliceLG

Great job, it looks amazing!


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## ooidort

Next step: paint the walls with something dark to really mesh everything together. Looks awesome as is though.


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## OrsusMetal

Nice! Very inspiring. Makes me want to give it a go.


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## Given To Fly

That's really impressive! I was actually impressed by the 8th pic but the finished product is a beautiful workstation!


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## newamerikangospel

Very nicely done.


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## JEngelking

Awesome work, sweet setup you've got there


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## Najka

Thanks for the comments!!


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## Michael T

Wow !! Turned out great.


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## sh4z

Looks Great! I would've opted for a chair with no arm rests or removable arm rests. As they tend to get in the way if you want to sit in front of the pc with the guitar. Looks like you might be able to take them off. Only problem is it might be supporting the back of the chair! 

Awesome work anyways


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## Najka

Yeah, the chair was kind of a compromise between lounging and comftorability with the guitar. I spend hours on end mixing, and it was pretty comfy for the price. It was on clearance so I couldn't pass it up. I have a couch in the background I normally sit in when I start tracking or jamming


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## Watty

Figured it would end up looking okay, but it sure livened up with that stain. Looks way better than any sub-$150 desk for sure!


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## Overtone

Super classy and lots of workspace! I suggest you get a pair of Auralex Mopads or something similar for your monitors to sit on... you'll probably notice that the sound clears up a lot.


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## XxSilverburstDiezelxX

GREAT JOB! Now just get the new PRO PADS from auralex and decouple dem moniterzzzzz.


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## Hourglass1117

This is so classy.


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## geoffshreds

your desk turned out nice man. here is a couple pics of a desk that i just finished. i can definitely agree that the all in one stain/poly stuff is total crap! i started doing mine a reddish/mahogany color and it was looking horrible, so i did the same thing and took the belt sander to it. decided just to leave mine natural/poly. i like your stain a lot though. how much did you spend in parts, and how many labor hours?


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## Larcher

holy fuck. I paid 870$ with shipping for my studio desk, I am so fucking gelly. Nice work broski


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## Najka

geoffshreds said:


> your desk turned out nice man. here is a couple pics of a desk that i just finished. i can definitely agree that the all in one stain/poly stuff is total crap! i started doing mine a reddish/mahogany color and it was looking horrible, so i did the same thing and took the belt sander to it. decided just to leave mine natural/poly. i like your stain a lot though. how much did you spend in parts, and how many labor hours?


 
$90 but I wasted like $12 on the polyshades all in one.

It took a week, about 1-2 hours a night. The polyshades and having to resand it put me back a day.

Nice work on your desks! I really like the first one


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## Kurkkuviipale

DUDE! That's freaking awesome!!! Great job.


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## geoffshreds

Najka said:


> $90 but I wasted like $12 on the polyshades all in one.
> 
> It took a week, about 1-2 hours a night. The polyshades and having to resand it put me back a day.
> 
> Nice work on your desks! I really like the first one



thanks man! its actually the same desk. just without all the gear on it. and damn, 90$..thats pretty good! i spend roughly 150$ (also wasting around 15$ on the poly/stain)
and a week seems pretty fast..did you have the hardware store cut all of your pieces? because i probably took a week alone just for cutting my boards haha.


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## Najka

geoffshreds said:


> thanks man! its actually the same desk. just without all the gear on it. and damn, 90$..thats pretty good! i spend roughly 150$ (also wasting around 15$ on the poly/stain)
> and a week seems pretty fast..did you have the hardware store cut all of your pieces? because i probably took a week alone just for cutting my boards haha.



The home depot employee cut the 2x4's And the 8x5 sheet. The rest of the supporting pieces I cut in less than 5 minutes each with the hand saw they were not that thick. I measured everything pretty fast
I felt I couldn't rest until it was done because I just moved into a new condo, I had no desk to put any of my equipment, it was all just packed up in boxes so I was getting ansy not being able to record. I needed it to do home work, write on, computer, i needed a work bench..it just needed to get done so I made it happen quick


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## Najka

Bumping this, I'm curious to see any other home-made studio desks anyone has made


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## IAMLORDVADER

Thats incredibly sick! The dark stain really looks good, great job


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## waroftheancients

Excellent. Looks amazing.


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## waroftheancients

You've talked me into building my own studio desk. I'm gonna have to draw up some designs and give it a go. Wish me luck.


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## kerouac

That's awesome. Mine isn't nearly as fancy, but it does the job. I'm hoping to build one someday, but considering I have fewer carpentry skills than you claim to, I'd be in deep shit.


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## metalmonster

I got wood ... for woodworking ! 

Seriously, the little "carved" thingies you've put on the sides give it a nice touch, and the desk does look pretty sturdy. As for wood finish ... i'm a fan of plain ol' beeswax (some are colored, like "dark ash" "light oak" or so)


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## FeedMeWithColours

Amazing. 

I was going to build something very similar for my room.


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## ZXIIIT

Fuck, that looks awesome, good job!


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## Najka

Thanks for the comments. It was a well worth it project.

recent Pic:


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## newamerikangospel

Those monitors look egg-celent


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## Djentliman

Hopefully, i will have the opportunity to build a table like this with black walnut and z -shaped silver metal tubes for the legs, just not as long as that would weigh a shit ton!


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## soundbydesign

F'in awesome dude. That looks tits.


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## right_to_rage

Yeah I'm totally doing this in the summer. Sweet inspiration!


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## AntonioPetrole

Your's came out awesome! I ended up building mine too, it's a bit different of a style






The rest of it can be found here

Studio build! - Ultimate Metal Forum

Cheers!


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## Najka

Roflsaurusrex said:


> Your's came out awesome! I ended up building mine too, it's a bit different of a style
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The rest of it can be found here
> 
> Studio build! - Ultimate Metal Forum
> 
> Cheers!


 
Awesome job! looks like it will have a nice workflow to it with the slanted sides.


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## JEngelking

Roflsaurusrex said:


> Your's came out awesome! I ended up building mine too, it's a bit different of a style
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The rest of it can be found here
> 
> Studio build! - Ultimate Metal Forum
> 
> Cheers!



Man, that looks comfy as hell.


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## 62strat

Great job Najka, you've inspired me to take on a new project and built my own!


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## Najka

newamerikangospel said:


> Those monitors look egg-celent


 
They are SE Munro Egg 150's, great monitors.


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## sojorel

Good job man.

I love the combo of a $4K daemoness with a $90 desk


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## gordon_mlz

This is awesome. I'm in the middle of an epic basement studio remodel. Included in the build is the design and construction of a custom studio desk between the console room and the drum room. I'll be posting the entire studio build as a picture diary thing, including the desk! 

Btw doing it all myself with the help of my cousin.


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## picasso65




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## Ocara-Jacob

Holy necrobump, batman! 

Alternatively this is making me REALLY want to build my own desk. dang. I want to integrate rackmount hardware into it though... That'd be a bit more of a challenge, seeing as I don't have any carpentry skills whatsoever.


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## danresn

Looks solid and well thought out


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## iamjosan

gotta love a man that's good with this hands 

that's so cool. I love building sh!t too. Maybe I should build myself a desk too lol

Looks really nice though.


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## 7stg

If I did not have a saw I would rent a table saw and maybe a miter saw. They can be rented fairly inexpensively and the cuts will be much better. Racks are not that hard to build, the equipment is 19" and the rack is just a bit wider at 19.125". Box joints are great with the below jig and are a strong way to connect things.

This INCRA Precision Fence :: Router Table Fence :: INCRA I-Box is real handy for getting nice box joints and not too expensive here Woodcraft.

If you do rent saws or have tools and want another woodworking project, building bass traps with Owens Corning 703 4 inch panels or building a 12/6/1 or a 15/6/1 fEARful&#8482; enclosures for bass/drums/keys cab are good ideas.

Be Safe


Well, if guns are banned, a tablesaw makes a great alternative.


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## vjw757

Najka said:


> Bumping this, I'm curious to see any other home-made studio desks anyone has made



Its been a couple years now. I'm wondering if your desk has started sagging in the middle yet?


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## Batsinthebelltower

love the antique stain and ornate pieces - you need a resident evil typewriter on a desk like that !!


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## Phantom

Great job! I've been wanting to build my own desk as well. I was thinking of going with a modified version of this one that my wife found on pintrest.
Building the perfect custom desk


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## Najka

vjw757 said:


> Its been a couple years now. I'm wondering if your desk has started sagging in the middle yet?



There was a very slight sag in the middle. Only noticed when I laid something flat right in the middle. Easily could have been fixed by just putting another support under. I since cut the desk up and made a more mastering type desk with slots for rack gear


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## Najka

Took a table saw to it. Just started hacking away, painted it black and installed rack mounts. Moved it into a smaller room


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