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A Modern Desk

Vasco Araldi’s contemporary desk combines function with style and economy with luxury

Photographs by Vasco Araldi/Legno

Modern wooden desk with storage drawers.
Table of Contents

Sooner or later we all get to try our hand at building a desk. And what does it take? A top, two trestles, maybe some drawers, a little legroom … and that’s it. In principle, that’s all it needs but what about aesthetics? How can you combine airiness with functionality and capacity, perhaps even looking for a legitimate saving on materials? You can see the solution in this project which, as well as uniting function with aesthetics, also combines two very different materials: the economical poplar plywood and the noble walnut.

The design

This desk has a predominantly rectangular top moved on the front by two oblique cuts. It rests on three trapezoidal frame supports arranged asymmetrically and with the smaller base at the bottom. The two on the left are close together and frame a pair of chests in which the drawers slide. The space for the chair is on the right and the trestles that surround it are joined by a pair of crosspieces; one that runs under the top and the other lower down, arranged so as not to interfere with the legs of the desk’s user.

Woodworking project in progress on a workbench.
1. A series of scale experiments were made to evaluate the size and strength of the supports
Planing wood boards with a Minimax machine in workshop.
2 & 3. The boards were cut almost to size to reduce any warping and then, after thicknessing, they were stacked along the grain. After 24 hours of rest to stabilise the wood, the pieces were then machined to the final section
Woodworking saw cutting timber planks in a workshop.
Woodworking blueprint with steel square tool on table.
4. A life-size drawing can be useful for appraising the proportions and the putting angles in order to prepare any additional supports
Table saw cutting a wooden piece at an angle.
5 & 6. When the cutting angles exceed the limits of the machinery, a blade edge slide can be set up with stops calibrated as needed, and, by adding a stop, cutting to the final dimensions
Close-up of miter saw cutting wood.
Walnut wood pieces with biscuits ready for joining.
7 & 8. The Domino system allows you to create joints by inserting tenons. The choice is wide and the joint remains invisible
Woodworking tools and materials on a workbench.
Woodworking frame assembly on a workbench in workshop.
9. The frames are a trapezoidal shape so are difficult to tighten with regular clamps. Clamp belts are the best solution since they exert pressure in a circular way and virtually eliminate joint slippage 
Workbench with woodworking tools and wood glue.
10 & 11. The boxes are made from poplar plywood edged with either walnut or tulipwood. The dark (walnut) parts will remain in the original colour and the light parts will be painted white like the rest of the panels
Applying wood glue to a wooden board project.
Woodworker using a hand saw to cut wood.
12 & 13. The panels must have a regular shape so all the edges have to be cut off flush with the rough sides. This can be done with the tablesaw (leaving the panel a little longer at the start) or with a hand saw for flush cuts
Stacked plywood sheets with saw on wooden table.

The most important elements in aesthetic terms, if lightness is a goal, are of course the supports and they were the first pieces to be made. After rejecting the idea of obtaining them from a panel, the choice fell on solid wood. A closed frame structure offers the same level of stability as a continuous piece but with less visual encumbrance. In this way it is possible to expand a little on the section, which in this case is a 50 x 40mm rectangle. Beyond the equipment necessary for processing the solid wood, there are no particular difficulties and given the fact that the three elements are identical, it is possible to approach the processing in a serial way starting from the squared material.

The frames are joined without the use of traditional joints. In their place you can use dowels or Domino tiles. In this case, biscuits do not offer adequate guarantees of tightness and are not recommended.

The boxes and drawers

The panels for the desk compartments, or boxes, were made from 18mm poplar plywood. This construction method was chosen for simplicity and the only variant was the type of edging, one side was edged with solid walnut and the other with tulipwood – everything that is not walnut will be painted white so any light wood could be used here. A 45° joint reinforced by biscuits was chosen to construct the compartments. The preparation cut was done on the tablesaw by tilting the blade. Before moving on to this phase all the excess wood on the edges was cut to size to bring them to the exact thickness of the panels. This can be easily done by hand with a smooth saw and a well-adjusted planer.

Table saw cutting wooden boards in workshop.
14. To cut the second side at 45° without the first bevel slipping into the gap between the parallel fence and the bed of the saw, a panel about 10mm thick must be fixed on the bench
Biscuit joiner with wood biscuits on a workbench.
15. The fastest way to joint the boxes is to insert biscuits. They are positioned more internally to prevent them breaking through on the visible face
Carpenter using a DeWalt joiner on wooden boards.
16. It may be necessary to raise the position of the blade by inserting a piece of wood on the tool’s tilting platform
Woodworking project with clamps in workshop.
17. As well as joining the four sides of the box the biscuits also prevent the 45 ° cuts from sliding when the clamps are applied
Hands using a tablesaw to cut wood plank.
18. For the joint with the sides, the drawer fronts have a rebate two-thirds of the height and as wide as the thickness of the sides. The parallel fence can be set as an end stop and then, with a series of side-by-side cuts, cover the entire width until the rebate is completed
Table saw cutting a groove in a plywood board.
19. The groove that houses the bottom of the drawers was made with two side-by-side saw cuts. The process is identical on all pieces and none of the grooves will be visible
Man drilling wood using a power drill and clamps.
20. With the drawer assembled (it is preferable that the glue is almost dry), dowels were inserted from the outside
Marking wood with precision measuring tool.
21. I traced the centre and outline of the hole onto the face plate template
Marking wood for precise cutting with calipers and ruler.
22. The sides of the hole were inclined to accommodate the trapezoidal shapes of the supports 
Wood router cutting a wooden board with UJK technology.
23–25. After roughing the shape with a Forstner bit, the router table was used to cut the long sides. To maintain the same precision, the short sides were cut using the template
Close-up of wood cutting router tool in use.
Woodworking router table with dust collection hose.

The 45° cuts were made in two goes: first on one side and then, after placing a temporary overlay against the saw guide, on the other side. With the boxes complete, I could move on to the drawers. Since the boxes are open on two sides, I could play with the two colours of the edges: the white of the panels and the veined brown of the walnut. The drawers have in fact a double front; solid wood on one side and panel on the other. They were made in a very simple way with only the help of the tablesaw. The fronts have a rebate that accommodates the 15mm sides and, on all pieces, there is a groove that houses the bottom. After assembling them, they were reinforced from the outside by dowels that go through the sides and fix in the thickness of the front.

Before putting the drawers together, I made a cut-out in the thickness of the front and inserted the drawer handle on the upper part of this cut-out. As I had to make eight face plates, this process was best done using a plywood template for the router and a short bearing-guided cutter.

Woodwork cutouts on a light wooden board.
26 & 27. The routing was also preceded by roughing out with a Forstner bit. Then I moved on to the final cut. The template was used with a pair of lateral stops to machine all the pieces in the same way
Router and wooden pieces on a workbench.
Woodworking mortise and tenon joints on table.
28. After eliminating the circular corners left by the router cutter, the handle was fitted
Woodworking clamp securing wooden joint in workshop.
29. The handle was cut to size at the same angle as the hole and fitted with the help of a Japanese type clamp with a small piece of scrap placed inside the hole
Unfinished wooden table frame in a workshop.
30. The shape of the top was decided during construction. Since the overall dimensions were known, the 18mm panel was placed on the supports. A series of clamps placed on the bases guaranteed stability in this delicate phase
Woodworking bandsaw cutting through wooden plank.
31. To obtain the shape of the solid wood that closes the top, I started from a rectangular piece cut along the grain with an inclined cut to the bandsaw
Close-up of precisely cut wooden pieces in workshop.
32. The resulting faces were then planed by hand to remove the marks left by the saw
Woodworking tools on table with project measurements.
33. The frames were applied by means of a cut-out that expands the gluing area and makes the join with the top more solid. This can be prepared with a cut on the spindle moulder or with two blind cuts on the table. They are then cut by perfectly calculating the bisector of the angles which, after the shaping of the panel, are no longer at 90°
Man using router on white board in workshop.
34. To be sure that the top and frame are at the same height, the tilting face of the biscuit joiner needed to rest on the top of both pieces
Woodworking table with clamps in workshop environment.
35. The join between the top and the frame uses numerous pieces. The smaller ones have the same function as the biscuits and are used for alignment on the vertical axis. The others bring the pieces together without joints

The top

The top of the desk had to be measured when starting the project, even though its construction was tackled last. Length and depth are parameters determined by the available space. All you need is the maximum measurements which can then be modified to your liking. The top of this desk has the front broken into two segments of different sizes that form a slight angle. One way, among many, of camouflaging the ‘presence’ of a piece of furniture.

The top combines the two materials: a plywood panel for the central part and solid wood for the frame. The latter, although it is thicker than the panel (38mm), has a bevel on the lower part that brings the outer edge to a thickness of only 10mm, considerably lightening the visible thickness of the top. This was obtained with a circular bandsaw before hand planing to finish. The circular bandsaw with a guide track is the best system for cutting out-of-square shapes on longer sections track. The time saved compared to setting the tablesaw is truly remarkable.

The faces in this process were on the lower part of the top. I recommend making the final touches once they are assembled on the top.

The final assembly

It’s important to note that the frames and the top of this desk have two different finishes; a ‘lacquer’ was used on the plywood panel and a transparent finish on the solid wood. At the time of assembly, if the finish on the top was very thick, a small step could have been created. Therefore, it’s a good idea to acccount for this when you’re preparing the flaps on the frame. In addition, the biscuits on the edge of the panel should be applied after the latter has received at least the first two primer coats.

With the top furnished with its frame it was now possible to assemble the three parts. I started by placing the two frames that house the boxes, positioning them at a height that is comfortable to reach and altering the spaces between them to create shelves of useful height. Once the definitive location of each piece was found, the boxes were screwed to the frames from the inside and slots were made on the lower part of the front frame so that the upper crosspieces of the external frames could rest on the lower face of the top. For the central one, this machining was not necessary since its position coincides with the maximum depth of the plane.

Hand sanding wooden frame in a workshop.
36. When the glue was dry, work with the planer or the sander to join the inclined faces in the transition from one side to the other
Assembling wooden desk with clamps in workshop.
37. The compartments for the drawers had to be inserted first so as to have at least one stable element. Once their final height was established, they were fixed to the supports with eight screws each, inserted from the inside of the sides
Hand carving precise wooden joinery with a chisel.
38. The outermost supports abut against the tooth that the frame forms on the lower part of the top. This made it easier to keep them locked while, with the knife, I made the marks for the notches in the thickness of the frame
Saw and tools on wooden frame project.
39. Following the marks, I made a couple of cuts across the grain with a thin saw
Hand using chisel to carve wood joint.
40. Then I eliminated the waste with a chisel, bringing the bottom of the recess flush with the lower face of the top
Using drill to assemble wooden frame.
41. Screws passing through the upper crosspieces of the trapezoids were sufficient to act as supports. The top is in plywood and so is not subject to expansion so it is not necessary to slightly elongate the holes as solid wood would require
Person woodworking with an electric plunge router.
42. Once the distance between the coupled and single supports was established, the crosspieces were inserted using the Domino system of a single but sturdy tenon
Wooden table in a modern woodworking shop.
43. The task of the crosspieces is to buttress the base on the major axis. The right support, being single and anchored to the top only by two screws, could flex. Adding two connections to the chest of drawers made it more stable
Painting a wooden surface with a brush.
44. After giving a first coat of sealer to the whole piece and sanding it, the areas to be painted were masked with painter’s tape
Wooden cabinets finished with varnish in a workshop.
45. Both the painted and solid wood parts have the same finish: a 15 gloss satin acrylic. The final effect gives more depth to the wood grain and more brilliance to the white
Modern wooden and white nightstand with single drawer.
46–49. Two colours, four variants. Playing with the different types of edging and fronts made it possible to create quite different arrangements 
Modern wooden nightstand with a white drawer.
Modern wooden nightstand with a drawer.
White drawer with wood handle on a dark frame.
Modern wooden desk with white shelves and drawers.
50. The completed desk combines function, aesthetic appeal and economy

Thanks to the cut-outs and the join with the boxes, all three frames found their final position and it was then possible to take the measurements to cut off the two reinforcement crosspieces placed on the right side. One runs under the top and the other, on the back side, is located about 200mm high.

Finishing

The desk’s appeal plays on the alternation of two colours. The walnut wood was left natural, with only a transparent finish, while all the panels were painted white. This mix of colours required a fair amount of masking of the solid wood parts but the final result is quite satisfactory. The desk has its own identity and a recognisable volume but, thanks to the alternation of colours, it appears lighter than it is. It is also both functional and economical. Although the walnut is fairly expensive, limiting its use made it possible to get by with only a single 50mm board. The cheap poplar plywood did the rest!

Further reading

Making a Waney Edge Desk

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