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patrick_besong

New office desk from old cabinets

Patrick Besong
vor 9 Jahren

I had a makeshift office desk which consisted of a luan closet door laid over 2 non-matching metal file cabinets. They weren't even the same height and I had to put a board on top of one to help level it out some. While visiting our local ReStore recycled home materials store, I saw 2 cabinets that had some damage to the lower back corners. The drawers were in nice shape - all wood. I bought them for $15 each and sanded them down, primed them, and painted them a semi-gloss white that I used for the trim in my house. To hide the damage to the corners I built out the toe kick on the front to make it flush with the front and added baseboard trim around the bottoms. I took my old luan door and painted it an espresso color left over from painting my kitchen cabinets. I then added a couple coats of polyacrylic to the door to make the finish a little more durable. Finally I bought new drawer pulls for about $5 each. The keyboard tray is simply a leftover shelf board that I painted white and put 14" drawer slides on to make it slide in and out. It's nice and wide. Plenty of room for my keyboard and mouse. Total cost not including paint, the top, and board for the keyboard tray which I already had was $65 - $30 for the cabinets, $30 for the drawer pulls, and $5 for the keyboard drawer slides.



Hervorgehobene Antwort
  • cabingirl13
    vor 9 Jahren
    Great transformation! A lot of hard work paid off in a big way- looks really nice!

    Kommentare (37)

    • PRO
      Dytecture
      vor 9 Jahren
      Nicely done and repurposing.
      Patrick Besong hat Dytecture gedankt
    • miss_magee
      vor 9 Jahren

      Wow--great make-over!!



      Patrick Besong hat miss_magee gedankt
    • PRO
      Interior Affairs -- Vickie Daeley
      vor 9 Jahren

      good for you!

      Patrick Besong hat Interior Affairs -- Vickie Daeley gedankt
    • PRO
      SoCal Contractor
      vor 9 Jahren

      Nice transformation!

      Patrick Besong hat SoCal Contractor gedankt
    • monika4711
      vor 9 Jahren

      Great job! Would love to do this to my honey colored oak desk.


      Patrick Besong hat monika4711 gedankt
    • sacapuntaslapioz
      vor 9 Jahren

      Beautiful, budget friendly and earth friendly transformation.

      Patrick Besong hat sacapuntaslapioz gedankt
    • mamadubbs
      vor 9 Jahren
      Beautiful, but I miss the kitty :)
      Patrick Besong hat mamadubbs gedankt
    • n247080
      vor 9 Jahren

      I miss the cat. I think you should put the cat back on the desk.......

      You did a marvelous job! Looks like something you just brought home from the store!

      Patrick Besong hat n247080 gedankt
    • Kendrah
      vor 9 Jahren

      Very impressive!


      Patrick Besong hat Kendrah gedankt
    • Patrick Besong
      Ursprünglicher Verfasser
      vor 9 Jahren
      Zuletzt geändert: vor 9 Jahren

      kitty has a mind of her own. she was on the cat tree next to the desk when i took the photo. she's always there when I work (if not in front of my screen). :-)

    • monika4711
      vor 9 Jahren

      Did you use a brush or roller for the cabinets?

    • Patrick Besong
      Ursprünglicher Verfasser
      vor 9 Jahren
      Zuletzt geändert: vor 9 Jahren

      I just used a brush. After sanding the finish on the cabinets to roughen them up, I gave them a coat of water-based primer, then I used the same latex semi-gloss paint I used on the house trim. It took about 3 coats till I was satisfied with the coverage. The paint tends to stretch tight when it dries so you don't get brush marks. Looks very smooth.

    • ckla3
      vor 9 Jahren

      When first reading the description, it seemed like you could have gone with cheaper drawer pulls but they really make the desk look expensive, so good job! Also, the bottom trim transformed the cabinets into furniture and really elevated the piece.

      Patrick Besong hat ckla3 gedankt
    • wendylbrown
      vor 9 Jahren
      Great transformation! I want to do something similar on my landing. Did you use kitchen base cabinets and cut them down to desk height, or are these vanity base cabinets? I'm having a hard time finding vanity base cabinets in the price range I need! Any info would be helpful!!
      Patrick Besong hat wendylbrown gedankt
    • PRO
      jeri cerutti home/simply sophisticated spaces
      vor 9 Jahren

      Awesome work!


    • Alyssa B
      vor 9 Jahren

      Nicely done!!!


    • Pam Luth
      vor 9 Jahren
      Zuletzt geändert: vor 9 Jahren

      Looks great, what brand of paint did you use?

    • Donna Cranmer
      vor 9 Jahren
      Lovely but the cat is missing!
    • peterbilt379
      vor 9 Jahren

      That really looks sharp.


      Patrick Besong hat peterbilt379 gedankt
    • Patrick Besong
      Ursprünglicher Verfasser
      vor 9 Jahren
      Zuletzt geändert: vor 9 Jahren

      the paint was actually a semi-gloss latext paint I bought at walmart. i'd used it on all the trim and inner doors in my house and it worked well for them. got the cabinets at a building materials recycling center that supports Habitat for Humanity. It is called ReStore. Not sure if they are kitchen cabinets or not (i suspect so). I did not cut them down at all. They were the same height as my old file cabinets.

    • Suzann Lauer
      vor 9 Jahren

      Thanks for sharing this, you did a great job! I was just at Staples last weekend and cannot spend money on a new desk, I just cannot get past the newbie stuff since I am a vintage collector. I was thinking of some ideas for refurbishing one for myself, and I thought about using a door for the surface. Did you use a solid smooth door, because in my mind I was wanting a slab of wood for the surface and an old door came to my mind. And was the height of the cupboards a perfect height for your desk? Looks like I have a hunt for a project this summer...

      Patrick Besong hat Suzann Lauer gedankt
    • marfenster
      vor 9 Jahren

      Fantastic DIY job ...looks wonderful!!


      Patrick Besong hat marfenster gedankt
    • Patrick Besong
      Ursprünglicher Verfasser
      vor 9 Jahren

      The luan doors are hollow core and I'd rather have used something solid, but this didn't cost me anything and it seems to do the job. The cabinets were already the right height.


    • PRO
      Setting the Stage, Home Staging and ReDesign
      vor 9 Jahren

      What a great transformation!

      Patrick Besong hat Setting the Stage, Home Staging and ReDesign gedankt
    • sunsandsong
      vor 9 Jahren

      This is beautiful. I always wish the HGTV reno shows would give their old cabinetry to Restore rather than putting them in a landfill. I've gotten some cool things from Restore.


      Patrick Besong hat sunsandsong gedankt
    • PRO
      JC Redesigns
      vor 9 Jahren
      Fantastic job, all round!!!!!!
      My brother fabricated a similar desk for our father when he moved into a senior living apartment tower.
      He made a paper template, (as it was going into a bay window area), and the desk surface was being custom made out of one piece of MDF board. He purchased two 2-drawer file cabinets, (not identical in appearance, but the same height), from The Salvation Army store, and painted them both black. The desk gave our dad a huge work surface.....Regards, Judy Cholfe of JC Redesigns
      Patrick Besong hat JC Redesigns gedankt
    • Patrick Besong
      Ursprünglicher Verfasser
      vor 9 Jahren

      @sunsandsong, yes I couldn't agree more. I hate when the Property Brothers take a sledgehammer to kitchen cabinets just for the sake of drama when they could simply be unscrewed from the wall with a lot less effort and recycled. They can often be repainted and reused in a kitchen or garage or repurposed for some other use.

    • dp0516
      vor 9 Jahren

      What does your cat think? :-)

      You really updated your entire space with this. Very creative and resourceful indeed!


      Patrick Besong hat dp0516 gedankt
    • Patrick Besong
      Ursprünglicher Verfasser
      vor 9 Jahren

      my cat is just fine with it. she lays on the corner of my desk while i'm working when she's not standing in front of the screen so i can't see. ;-)

    • dp0516
      vor 9 Jahren

      I can't think of more charming decorative accessory than a happy kitty!

    • Patrick Besong
      Ursprünglicher Verfasser
      vor 9 Jahren


    • PRO
      JC Redesigns
      vor 9 Jahren

      OMG You are sooooo funny!!!!!!

      Patrick Besong hat JC Redesigns gedankt
    • kyleymarielena
      vor 9 Jahren

      This looks awesome! Great job!

      Patrick Besong hat kyleymarielena gedankt
    • PRO
      Amy Wolff Interiors
      vor 8 Jahren

      Great work!

      Patrick Besong hat Amy Wolff Interiors gedankt
    • yittys148
      vor 8 Jahren

      Wow! Amazing work!

      Patrick Besong hat yittys148 gedankt
    • PRO
      ERT Architects, Inc
      vor 8 Jahren

      wow, looks great!

      Patrick Besong hat ERT Architects, Inc gedankt
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