Monday

DIY nailhead door desk

This project sort of happened out of necessity.  Some of you may remember when I shared my $10 DIY desk that I made using Ikea sawhorses and a piece of glass that was given to me by a friend.  Supposedly the glass top was used as a table top before so at first I wasn't really worried about it breaking, some of you even asked me if I was concerned about that.  Well, it turns out I was kind of concerned about it.  I noticed one day that the glass was bowing ever so slightly in the middle right where our computer sat.  That made me a little weak in the knees. (and not in a good way)  

I just so happened to have an old door sitting in our garage.  I picked it up on the side of the road one day and saved it for such a time as this.  

Here's a before picture after I scraped and scraped and sanded and scraped some more...

I also had to cut the door down to size so I could use my existing glass as a protective top.


After I prepped it, I primed and painted the whole thing in white gloss paint.  

I wanted to give the inset portions a little more oomph so I took some foam board, cut it down to size, and covered it with white fabric.


I used a little packing tape to adhere it to foam board, nothing fancy.


Then I created a simple border using nailhead trim.  You could use individual nailheads, but it's way easier and less time consuming to use the trim sold by the roll.

I found mine here.
Then, I set the boards in place and gave the nailheads a little tap to hold everything and place.

 I was worried about the solid top making things feel cluttered or less open, but it gives the desk more of a presence and I actually like it so much more this way.  I think the fact that it's white also helps it to not be too visually heavy.







I'm constantly pulling out my ruler, or measuring tape, when I'm sourcing things for clients.  So, I slid a yardstick under the glass so I would have a quick reference when searching for things online.  And the best part is it will never get lost or used and not put back. :)  It looks bowed in this picture for some reason, but it's straight in real life.


IKEA sells several options of table legs and trestles if you want to try this.

Linking this project up to Creating with the stars!