I can't tell you how great it feels to finally have this DIY corner desk completed! If you're a newsletter subscriber, you'll know that building a small corner desk has been on my agenda for the last few months which is another reason why I'm so excited to be able to put a big fat tick next to 'Build a DIY corner desk' on the 'to-do' list of my tiny office makeover!
Looking for a ready-made small corner desk?
TIP: If you're looking for a ready-made corner desk for a small office space then check out my ideas for 'SMALL CORNER DESKS - TO BUY' at the end of this post. You will find small corner desks with storage and without and there's something there to fit even the smallest office space. You can also 'SHOP MY OFFICE' at the end of this post.
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How the room at the top of the stairs became a tiny office
When we built our house, we never intended this space to be an office. In fact, it was never intended to be any sort of 'room' at all – it's just the first-floor landing or the room at the top of the stairs which leads to the loft space and our guest room.
The more I looked at this space though, the more I realised that it actually had the potential to be more than 'dead' space – at least, I could fit a desk and some storage in there and call it an office and have done with it. I grabbed a mishmash of furniture from around the house and made do with that for the first few years.
Then, when 'Chalking Up Success' was born, I found myself spending more and more time at my computer and the tiny desk became cramped with no extra space to spread out my folders and journals.
How the room looked before
Making plans for a DIY corner desk
That's when I really started to think about how I could transform this space into an organised office by building a small corner desk with storage.
Most of all, I wanted to make the most of the available desk space so that I would have an area for writing and planning as well as for my computer monitor, keyboard and printer.
Making a Mood Board
I knew this small office transformation wasn't going to happen overnight but I made a plan and started a mood board (Read more about using mood boards in this post) so I could collect ideas of how I wanted the small office to look. Because
Maximising storage - Another problem solved
Whilst I was figuring out a solution for the small corner desk, I decided to go ahead and start another DIY project that would also maximise the storage in this room and get my files up off the floor.
I share this office with Brilli and she is usually lying as close to my feet as she can get and that means there's even less floor space available. You can read how I solved that problem here.
As soon as that project was finished, I couldn't wait to get going with building the small corner desk. After making a mood board, I had a pretty good idea how I wanted the desk to look, so now I just needed to figure out how I was going to get it done.
A DIY corner desk for the room at the top of the stairs
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Time needed: About 2 days.
Materials Used
One length of
Electric sander | USA | EU |
Protective goggles | USA |
Damp Cloth (To wipe down after sanding)
Wood oil/wax mix
Paintbrush
Screws (My wall is made of brick, different screws are needed for a stud wall).
Rawl plugs (to hold the screws in place in the wall and specific to the type of screws used)
Circular saw Like this one (you only need this if you need to make adjustments as we did)
Metal binding clips
Adjustable legs (I used three)
- Measuring
The first thing we did was to measure the office space. I had already decided that an 'L' shaped corner desk was going to be the best use of space in this tiny office so off we went to the builders' merchants to see what we could find.
Having already used oak for this project, we decided to go for oak again for the small corner desk. Luckily, we found some oak work surface which is usually used for kitchen counters and the like.
We gave our measurements to the carpenter at the store and he cut the two 'L' shaped pieces to size for us. He also drilled some holes on the underside of the work surface so that we could use clips to join the two pieces together (as well as gluing).
- Preparing the corner desk
The oak was untreated so the first job was sanding and sealing. I used 80 grit sandpaper at first moving on to 120 grit which I knew would give the wood a lovely smooth finish. Read this post for my method for sanding and sealing the wood.
- Supporting the corner desk
Originally, I wanted to make a 'floating' corner desk but oak is heavy and we were worried that wall supports might not be enough to hold the desk in place.
In the end, we added three legs to our DIY corner desk – one at each end of the desk and one where the two pieces are joined together. The legs are adjustable and we set them towards the middle of the desk so that they are not so obvious when you walk in the room. In fact, only the leg which sits directly underneath the join is visible the other two are hidden by the cupboard and the staircase.
We added supports to the walls at intervals along the wall and the corner desk rests on these. There are no photos of us fitting the corner desk to the supports because it took three of us to manoeuvre the wood into place and there was no room left for the camera or video!
This is how our DIY corner desk looked with just the first long piece in place – you can see how the join was made.
DIY Corner Desk Finished!
After that, I got a bit carried away in the excitement of seeing our small corner desk (almost) finished and couldn't wait to start bringing all my things back into the room so the photos are a bit scarce but here's how it looks at the moment.
The light in this room is fantastic for photography but up until now, it's been almost impossible to shoot in here without removing half of the items in the room.
Now, the side desk provides the perfect space for a flat lay shoot. In fact, I shot my most recent stock bundle in here and this is how it turned out. (The affiliate link below will take you to my shop on Creative Market).
Cosy Winter Bundle | Styled Stock
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Things left to do in this tiny office
Fit a wood trim - There is a gap at the back of the desk for all the computer wires and I want to buy some wood trim to seal that up leaving just one small opening behind the monitor for for the wires.
Hide the wires - Talking of wires, another task will be finding a solution for hiding the wires which are underneath the desk. I hate that it looks so untidy (hanging cables are one of my pet hates). I'm not sure yet how I'm going to do that but I'm sure I'll find a solution.
Touch up wall paint – we took off some of the paint whilst trying to manoeuvre the corner desk into place so I'm going to have to fix that at some point 😉
Wall decoration – I have a few options in mind for prints or other kinds of wall décor (might be a bit of DIY involved, we'll see).
Rug – I love this round rug but as there is no under-floor heating in this space I also need something underneath the desk which will keep my feet warm in winter (when Brilli is not lying on them haha!). You can find similar rugs to mine here.
Desk lamp – You may have seen this lamp which I made for this office and it hangs right over the printer. It was a really easy DIY project and gives off a lovely cosy light but I desperately need a task lamp too. I've been waiting until this DIY corner desk was finished so that I could see how I would use the workspace.
I'm also torn on whether to use a space-saving wall light or whether to buy a free-standing desk lamp. I think something like this would work really well in this room – but the jury is still out on that one!
Blind for the roof window – I absolutely love the light the roof window brings in to this north-facing room but sometimes the light is a bit too bright. I'd like to add a window blind to diffuse the light a little. That would also mean that I can do away with the screen protector I'm currently using over my monitor.
Build a corner desk Project (Tick)
At last, the biggest project in this room, 'build a corner desk' has been ticked off my list and this tiny office makeover is well on the way to being finished!
What do you think of it so far? If you have any ideas or suggestions for the rest of the items on my list, feel free to tell me in the comments below.
Shop my office
Small corner desks - to buy
Here is a selection of ready-made small corner desks with storage and without. You should be able to find a suitable corner desk for your small space here:
See the other posts in this series:
33 Affordable home decor finds for a natural Autumn look
Stylish & affordable botanical art for your home
How to put up shelves with adjustable brackets
Styling shelves so they look great and hide the mess
How to organize a small under stair pantry
How to make and stencil a giant paper bag
How to make a pretty paper lamp | Easy DIY
Seagrass, Willow & Rattan home accessories you’ll love.
This post was shared and/or featured at these link parties.
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Mona says
I guess I'm a little late to this party, as it is now June of 2020...but I would still like to tell you how much I love what you did with that space where you made a corner office. My only real comment is that I would hope you realized that SEVEN plants in there was just too ridiculous for more words!!!
Jayne Westerholt says
Hello Mona, you can never be too late to party with me! I'm so glad you like the corner desk, it has been a lifesaver throughout the COVID.19 Pandemic. Here's the thing with the plants, I used to be terrible at keeping indoor plants alive but now I've got the knack and can't get enough of them. I don't believe there is such a thing as having too many plants but you will be glad to hear that some of them grew too big/long and had to be re-housed! 🙂 Thanks for taking the time to comment and I hope you have a lovely week!
Collin James says
The tutorial is very detailed, thanks
I followed the instructions and the results were amazing
Jayne Westerholt says
Thanks, Collin! I'm so glad you found my tutorial helpful.