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    Home » Furniture

    September 3, 2019

    A DIY corner desk for the room at the top of the stairs

    An oak corner desk in a tiny office

    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. It's the reason why I'm so excited to put a big fat tick next to: 'Build a DIY corner desk', on the 'to-do' list, for my tiny office makeover!

    Looking for a ready-made small corner desk?

    TIP: Looking for a ready-made corner desk for a small office space? Check out my ideas for small corner desks to buy at the end of this post.

    You will find small corner desks and computer desks with storage and without. There's something there to fit even the smallest home office.

    You can also shop my office at the end of this post.

    Pin this tutorial

    If you'd like to save this idea for later, be sure to pin it to your most relevant Pinterest board - hover over the top left corner of the image below and the Pinterest 'Save' button will appear 🙂

    An oak corner desk in a tiny office
    Table of contents
    • Looking for a ready-made small corner desk?
    • How the room at the top of the stairs became a tiny office
    • How the room looked before
    • Making plans for a DIY corner desk
    • Maximizing storage - Another problem solved
    • A DIY corner desk for the room at the top of the stairs
    • DIY Corner Desk Finished!
    • Easy custom desk
    • Watch it on YouTube
    • Things left to do in this tiny office
    • Build a corner desk Project (Tick)
    • Shop my office
    • Small corner desks - to buy
    • Conclusion
    • These posts are good too
    • See the other posts in this series:

    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. It leads to the loft space and our guest room.

    Creating office space

    The more I looked at this space, the more I realized that it had the potential to be more than 'dead' space. At least, I could fit a desk and some storage in there, 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. The tiny desk became cramped with no extra space on the table top to spread out my folders and journals.

    It was time for a new desk.

    How the room looked before

    How the office looked before the makeover - A laptop and lamp on an old wooden desk.
    Pretty uninspiring!

    Making plans for a DIY corner desk

    That's when I really started to think about how I could transform this space into an organized office. I could build a small corner desk with storage.

    Most of all, I wanted to make the most of the available desk space. I wanted to have an area for writing and planning and enough space for my computer monitor, keyboard, and printer.

    Making a Mood Board

    I knew this small office transformation wasn't going to happen overnight. First, I made a plan and started a mood board. (Read more about using mood boards in this post). I started to collect desk design ideas and ideas of how I wanted the small office to look.

    Because the space is tiny, buying a corner desk didn't seem to be a viable option. Then, I started looking into how we could build a DIY small corner desk.

    Maximizing storage - Another problem solved

    Whilst I was figuring out a solution for the small corner desk, I had a great idea for another DIY project. It was an easy plan that would maximize the storage in this room and get my files up off the floor.

    I share this office with my Australian Shepherd, Brilli. She is usually lying as close to my feet as she can get. That means there's not much leg space and even less floor space available.

    You can read how I solved that problem here.

    The paper lamp is finished and hanging in my tiny office

    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 of how I wanted the DIY desk to look. I decided that I wanted to create a floating corner desk with a butcher block desk top.

    Now I just needed to figure out how I was going to fit the perfect desk into this small room.

    The empy room - how it looked before starting work on the corner desk

    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 raw oak countertop (Butcher block) around 3 cms thick in the required depth (mine has a depth of 60cms wide), cut to the required length
    Electric sander
    Protective goggles
    Damp Cloth (To wipe down after sanding)
    Wood oil/wax mix
    Paintbrush
    Drill/driver
    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
    Wood glue
    Adjustable legs (I used three). You can also get the desk legs here.
    Spirit level

    1. 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.

      Choosing a desktop

      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. The best part is that 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 using wood glue).the underside of the corner desk - showing the metal clamp which holds the two pieces together

    2. Preparing the corner desk

      The oak was untreated so the first job was sanding and sealing the top of the desk. I used 80 grit sandpaper over the entire desk 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.

    3. Supporting the corner desk

      For this building project, 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.

      The perfect solution was to add three legs to our DIY corner desk – one at each end of the desk and one where the two pieces are joined together.

      Desk Legs

      We thought about attaching hairpin legs but they couldn't get any in the right size.

      We managed to get some desk legs from IKEA that were a perfect fit.

      The legs are adjustable and we set them towards the middle of the desk so that they are not so obvious when you walk into the room. In fact, only the leg which sits directly underneath the join is visible the other two are hidden by the file cabinets and the staircase.

      Wooden supports

      We added wooden supports to the walls at intervals along the wall and the corner desk rests on these

      We picked up the wooden supports from our local hardware store.

      There are no photos of us fitting the corner desk to the supports because it took three of us to maneuver the floating desk into place and there was no room left for the camera or video!
      The corner desk will rest on these wooden supports which have been screwed to the wall.

    TIP: Here's an alternative desktop idea for your corner office desk. Use wooden boards and attach trim pieces around the front and sides with a nail gun.

    This is how our DIY corner desk looked with just the first long piece in place. You can see how the join was made.

    TIP: To join the two desk pieces together, you could use pocket holes and pocket hole screws.

    The desk is resting on the wooden supports.

    Oak corner desk in a small office at the top of the stairs - longest piece installed.
    The desk is resting on the wooden supports
    Showing the corner desk where the two oak pieces join together

    DIY Corner Desk Finished!

    After that, I got a bit carried away in the excitement of seeing our new corner desk (almost) finished. I couldn't wait to start bringing all my things back into the room.

    The photos are a bit scarce but here's how it looks at the moment. I can't tell you how excited I am to finally have my very own corner desk with a modern look.

    Oak corner desk in a small office at the top of the stairs

    The light in this room is fantastic for photography. Up until now, it's been almost impossible to shoot in here without removing half of the items in the room.

    Easy custom desk

    Adding a custom desk to the corner of the room was easy and didn't take a lot of time.

    Now, I have the working space I need for all of my office work.

    I have plenty of storage space too.

    The side desk provides the perfect space for a flat lay shoot. In fact, I shot my most recent stock bundle on the desk in this. (The affiliate link below will take you to my shop on Creative Market).

    Cozy Winter Bundle | Styled Stock

    Oak corner desk in a small office at the top of the stairs
    Room for the printer too!

    TIP: Rolling containers make great storage for the open space at the sides of the desk.

    Watch it on YouTube

    Watch the video tutorial for this project on YouTube here.

    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. I want to buy some wood trim to seal that up. I'll leave just one small opening behind the monitor for the wires.

    Hide the computer wires

    Another task will be looking for a great way to hide the wires 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 maneuver the corner desk into place. I'm going to have to fix that at some point 😉

    Office wall decoration

    I have a few options in mind for prints or other kinds of wall décor. There might be a bit of DIY involved, we'll see.

    Warm office rug

    I love this round rug. There is no under-floor heating in this space I also need something warm underneath the desk. I need to 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. It hangs right over the printer. It was a really easy DIY project and gives off a lovely cozy light. 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. The jury is still out on that one! Whatever desk lamp I choose, it has to have a simple design.

    Blind for the roof window

    I love the light the roof window brings into this north-facing room. Sometimes though, 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.

    Oak corner desk in a small office at the top of the stairs

    Build a corner desk Project (Tick)

    At last, the biggest project in this room, 'build a corner desk' has been ticked off my list. This tiny office makeover is well on the way to being finished!

    What do you think of it so far? Do you have any ideas or suggestions for the rest of the items on my list? If so, feel free to let me know in the comments below.

    UPDATE: See how I transformed this space into a modern rustic farmhouse-style home office for winter here.

    Small pieces of reclaimed wood have been made into a small square desk organizer for pens, pencils, paintbrushes etc.
    Make a desk organizer from reclaimed wood

    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 beautiful corner desks for your small space in online stores here:

    Conclusion

    If you have a small house with not much space a simple corner desk is a great option.

    When you just need some personal space or your own desk to work from home, there are some great DIY options.

    It's easy to urn a corner of your room into a DIY computer desk. Consider finding a space in your living room, bedroom, hallway, or attic.

    This is such a simple build that would work for a craft room too.

    Enjoyed this post? Show your support!

    I hope you enjoyed reading the post 'A DIY corner desk for the room at the top of the stairs'. Please consider leaving a comment if you enjoyed this post. I also very much appreciate shares on Pinterest or social media. Sharing really helps me a lot and only costs you a minute of your time!

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    Styling a modern farmhouse office

    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

    Organize a small under stair pantry

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    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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    Join my Facebook group here: Organize, Decorate, Create. I'd love for you to join our community!

    Connect with me on Instagram here.

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    1. Mona says

      June 21, 2020 at 3:20 pm

      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!!!

      Reply
      • Jayne Westerholt says

        June 21, 2020 at 5:36 pm

        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!

        Reply
    2. Collin James says

      November 02, 2020 at 4:28 pm

      The tutorial is very detailed, thanks
      I followed the instructions and the results were amazing

      Reply
      • Jayne Westerholt says

        November 03, 2020 at 2:48 pm

        Thanks, Collin! I'm so glad you found my tutorial helpful.

        Reply
    3. Danielle says

      May 05, 2021 at 10:21 pm

      This came out so well! I could really use it in my office!!! My desk is way too big and non-functional!

      Reply
      • Jayne Westerholt says

        May 07, 2021 at 10:42 am

        Thanks, Danielle! This desk has been a lifesaver during the COVID pandemic!

        Reply
    4. theofficegeek says

      June 20, 2021 at 11:24 am

      Such an amazing article for a diy desk corner. Would recommend this to my officemates and repost in my Pinterest. Definitely suites for the working area of the office deskmat, gaming mousepad and desk accessories I bought recently.

      Reply
      • Jayne Westerholt says

        June 21, 2021 at 9:55 am

        Thanks so much! I'm glad that my tutorial for a DIY corner desk was helpful to you!

        Reply

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