DIY Filing Cabinet Desk

Hello you all! I’ve been wanting to post about one of my latest projects for a while now and haven’t gotten around to it. So finally, here I am writing after midnight, since that’s when I enjoy it the most. :)

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! I can hardly believe we are in that time of the year again. To me, it seems like it just was! I’d be lying if I said I’m not already thinking about the next season, right around the corner, but for now, I will try and enjoy Ohio’s winter season, which can often be described in a few words, GRAY and a bit BLEAK. :(

Before getting into the topic at hand, I wanted to share my latest Etsy listings. I have a box of interesting books, old documents, checks, etc. from my great grandparents that I like to rummage through now and then. I found these cool old book pages that I felt were worth printing out. I thought they would make a neat vintage farmhouse wall decoration. You can view the listing here.

And I also found some old books at a local thrift store that I used some illustration pictures to frame. You can see them on my shop here.

I have also been busy creating scrolls and I am presently doing some research on different papers and sizes to use.

Here is Twinkle doing his best Sphinx impression as he watches me work..:)

Now, for the featured project..

Starting at the beginning…this summer I added shiplap to a section of our living room wall, which you can read about here. 

Even though it’s in our living room, I had plans to add an office area along the one wall eventually. Sure, a nice big studio would be nice to work in with all kinds of space but for now it won’t happen so I decided to make use of the space I have.

I wanted to remain as thrifty as possible with this project so I dug through my stock of wood out in the shop and managed to find a few nice, long boards to use for my desk top. I didn’t get a picture of how I fastened them together but I basically just used short boards and screwed them on the bottom side, holding the planks together.

I had a little “end of the summer” visitor watching me as I stained the boards…

I got my inspiration from this pin on Pinterest..

So, again, here is the “before”…

And now the “after”…

I spend a lot of time in this little corner! I do in home secretary work and also work on my Etsy designs here. I love it since it’s on the same floor as the kitchen, so I can multi task without having to go too far.

As you can see, I used three black filing cabinets from Walmart as the base. I was going to paint them gray and give them a “zinck” look as pictured in the Pinterest image but I haven’t gotten around to it. I still feel like they are too black but for now they will do.

I am really attracted to the color charcoal, white and stained wood combinations these days so I tried to incorporate those three into this area. 

My youngest son, who is eleven made this pretty wood sign for me this summer. Doesn’t it fit in perfectly? :)

I was impressed how smooth I was able to get the planks, using only my little electric sander. After the top was stained, I gave it a few coats of Polycrylic, which helps with getting it smooth.

A scroll ready to ship out.

So, all in all, I didn’t spend a fortune to get this much needed space set up. The biggest expense would have been the filing cabinets, which were around $40 each. Coming in second is the chair, which I ordered from Amazon for around $110 for a set of two. The lights are from IKEA and I believe they were $20 each. I won’t count the wood since it was just left over from a former project. All the wall decor I made spending next to nothing.

I hope I can inspire you to create things using what you have, or spending nearly nothing, but still getting something useful out of it! It’s a good feeling!

Thanks you all for visiting my blog and I hope you are having a great day!

-Mary