I finally finished the desk I’ve been building all Summer. I started it not long after the kids broke up for summer recess, and I promised myself I’d get it done in time for Finn starting the 4th grade. As it turns out I over-ran by a couple of weeks, but a career in SAP has taught me that this is close enough to be called on-time.
I started on this uncharacteristically-ambitious project because Finn needed a new desk so he can knuckle down to some serious schoolwork (hey, a father can dream, can’t he??). Most of the desks in the stores are plywood crap that wouldn’t stand up to some vigorous pencil-pushing let alone Finn banging his books around on it in a fit because he doesn’t want to do his homework, so I reasoned I could build a better one myself.  I also wanted Finn to have something that matched his bed. The bed came from Pottery Barn Kids, but they don’t offer a desk in the same style. Plus, I reasoned, if I hand-made something for the boy he might recognize it as a demonstration of my fatherly love and devotion. And maybe also see that sometimes it’s worth putting time and effort into something.
I’d done a bit of woodwork back in school (got an A-grade in my ‘O’ level, in fact…), and figured it would be good to get back into some good, honest craftsmanship. I haven’t actually made anything in some 20 years (!) but I figured it was probably like riding a bike – some skills you never forget. My first problem was that I didn’t have a plan – other than the bed itself – to work from. Handily, I also got an A-grade in Technical Drawing so I was able to put those skills (I use the term loosely) to use as well, knocking up a quick one-pager that managed to guide me through the whole project.
One of the additional advantages of building a desk myself was that it gave me the excuse to go out and buy a whole shedload of new power-tools.  By the time I’d bought a router (and router table), a dovetail jig, a circular saw, a chop-saw, and an orbital sander, this turned out to be just about the most expensive desk in the history of deskdom. And that’s not even counting the wood (poplar) which cost me at least twice what I could have bought a ready-made office desk for… But the way I look at it, the tools were an investment. I know I’m going to get steady use out of them – Freya’s already banging on at me to make her a pink ‘princess’ desk, and the wife has a long list of other projects lined up for me.
The router proved to be invaluable, especially for the slat-work on the sides, and all of the mortise and tenon joints that hold the whole desk together. (Although I learned the hard way how to fit a square peg into a round hole: lots of sanding – but you do get a really good, tight fit that way.) The actual woodworking was fun, and the smell of fresh-cut wood – probably thanks to the sawdust up my nostrils (and coating the entire garage by the time I’d finished) - took me back to wood-shop at school. Unfortunately I’d forgotten how laborious finishing is, what with sanding, a layer of primer/undercoat (by hand, after which I went out and added a paint spray-gun to my tool collection), more sanding, two layers of paint, and then a couple of layers of wax finish to polish it off.
Overall, now it’s done, I’m pretty pleased with it. Once I’d got it in place in Finn’s room, even I was surprised at how professional it looks. It matches the bed so well (right down to the paint, thanks to Lowe’s matching a sample off the bed perfectly) that you’d be forgiven for thinking that it is a kosher Pottery Barn product. Except that mine is better quality. Really. On closer inspection of the bed (and after doing all of the hard work on the desk), I discovered that the ‘slat-work’ on the bed is actually just thin strips of wood glued onto a single piece of board, whereas mine is all tongue-and-grooved. Plus, mine is all held together with actual joints (lots of mortise and tenon joints, and half-blind dovetails on the drawer), whereas the bed is really just screwed together. The only screws on mine are the ones holding the top on. The way I look at it, this desk is heirloom quality. I fully expect Finn to be carting this with him when he goes off to college (secured through all the hard work he’d better start putting in, sat at this desk).
There’s a few minor bits that could be better, but the untrained eye would be hard-pushed to notice them, and I’m not going to point them out. Certainly not to an over-critical nine-year-old, anyway. Besides, by the time Gil has finished tap-dancing on the top of it, and Freya has used it to paint her nails on, I’m sure any minor imperfections in my craftsmanship will barely be noticeable. And what was Finn’s response to my three months of blood, sweat, and the occasional tear, all for his benefit? “‘s OK…”.
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