Building A Large L-Shaped Desk For Accommodating Plenty Of Computers

Four years ago I chronicled building a massive L-shaped desk for a better workflow, more monitors and space. For those that may be wanting to procure a new computer desk if you are working from home or eyeing L-shaped desk options, here is a new build I recently finished up as an improvement over my original design

When needing to fit a crib/play-pen into my office area earlier this year, I ended up having to ditch my old desk design, temporarily use some folding tables, and then a few weeks back finally got around to coming up with plans and building a new and improved L-shaped wooden desk with metal legs. Here are details on that build if you are thinking about building your own computer desk or coming up with ways to easily and more affordably have a massive desk that can accommodate many monitors and other computer components. That L-shaped desk followed the butcher block desk in the server room built previously.

The former L-shaped desk after its completion.

Due to the original design being comprised of two sheets of 8-foot long birch butcher block and plenty of galvanized pipe, it's a heavy beast. So when re-configuring the office area and needing to move the desk to an opposite wall and also shortening one side, it was ultimately easier to start over rather than trying to re-finish it in place given the obstacles involved.

The overall design is largely the same as the original but shortening up one side to now be four and eight foot butcher block sections rather than two eight foot sheets. For binding together the two sheets of birch butcher block, wood glue and Kreg screws were used still to great success. For further reinforcing that joint were also two metal straps. With the butcher block sheets 1.5-inches thick and 25-inches wide, the weight of the wood alone is a ~135 lb desk not including the legs.

The top was sanded and used a Minwax pre-stain followed by two coats of Minwax Walnut gel stain. Finishing off the stain was a Minwax spar urethane finish, similar to the original design. When it came to the leg structure and cable organization underneath, that is where I deviated completely from the original design.