Materials: MICKE Cabinet on Castors, RIBBA Picture Ledge (550 mm), TERTIAL Work Lamp
Stage 1 – Desk space
A few years back I picked up a Large MICKE Cabinet (Now discontinued it seems) to hold my printer next to my MICKE Desk. As I’d stopped using the same setup I had the cabinet and without wanting to get rid of it I’d always wanted to set up a proper Drawing desk for myself. With the finished size of 800 x 900 in mind I planned out the desktop and bought the MDF and lengths of pine as needed.
In the first case I put the whole thing together using a mitre cut to get the 30 degree slant that I wanted on the rear 2 supports. Apart from finding it a little more difficult to screw in the hinge beneath the 2 vertical supports it was plain sailing to set up. Using the 16mm board allowed me to use plain 16mm wood screws from the bottom without drilling all the way through.
While I have the drawings now at the time I’d had to be quite careful to ensure that the top draw of the cabinet would not hit the desk when it was up.
Stage 2 – Fixing and painting
After fixing the desk frame to the MICKE Cabinet I painted 4 corner swipes (for design more than anything) and then put a couple of coats of estapol on that and 10mm x 10mm x 700mm piece of pine for the lip as it was just a little bit angled for paper as well as holding pens and pencils when needed. The drying process gave me some time to plan the next stage, lighting and other complimenting items.
I’d recommend putting felt pads on the underside of the Vertical supports as it will offset any imperfections from when they were cut.
Stage 3 – Necessary Additions.
A good designer requires lighting and on stopping in to the local Ikea I picked up a TERTIAL work lamp and a couple of short RIBBA Picture Ledges. The TERTIAL lamp comes with a bracket that can be used quite well to fix it to a desk but is severely affected when gravity comes into play due to the angle. The compromise was to drill a large bore hole (14mm) through the desk perfectly vertical to slot the lamp into.
The RIBBA Picture ledges were a little less orthodox but fixing them to the side was easily done allowing for items (and cups of tea) to be placed as needed. The fact that they jut out at the back allowed me to have pads at the back in case the whole desk should push against a wall. As yet I’ve installed the two you can see but I need to get another 2 to sit on the other side now.
I’m not an experienced carpenter and had never attempted something like this before so I’m sure better methods and means can be found but I was quite happy with the result and it’s given a new life to some old furniture, and cleaned up a cluttered corner to be a work space.
via IKEA Hackers http://ift.tt/1uCFpiO From Michael Alesich
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