Pacman corner desk of joy II

And here it continues from the last post. After having made the fake L-shaped “wall” to hide the cabling, here is the making of the side panels with its cut-outs. By the way, the cut-outs are super cheap bamboo pot stands/heat protectors, which I’d picked up from IKEA for 10p or so, several months previously. I often pick up things I don’t know yet what to make from, and then they come in handy. The lattice cut-outs were primed, then spray painted in bright red, green and yellow. The reason why I went for these colours is not only because I liked them, but simply because Aldi had the spray paint in their special offers at some time.

The cut-outs were measured and drawn onto the sheet of MDF, then corners drilled out, so I could cut them with my jigsaw. After having tested that everything fits, the side panels got primed and then painted white, before the lattice cut-outs got glued on.

               

I wanted the desk to fit perfectly everywhere, after all, what is the point of custom-making a piece of furniture if it isn’t perfectly fitting everywhere? This includes the bit around and in front of the glass doors. I had to make sure that bit was sturdy as the rest, because I wanted to put the printer/scanner onto it, thus I added a couple of legs that I got from an IKEA Amon table that I’d used in my previous place and had kept disassembled in the loft since. One never knows when one might re-use something.

         

It was time, then, to prime and paint the the desk. Turning the desk onto its side on my own was useful for painting, but I shouldn’t have done this, because it almost ripped off some of the legs and certainly was very heavy and difficult to move. I tend to be a bit pig-headed at times.

  

With a bit of the desk in front of the glass doors, I didn’t want to have that bit of the door uncovered, because it wouldn’t look nice from the conservatory, so I swiftly built a piece of wood to cover that, and coated it in the same orange vinyl as the fake wall.

 

And now all the parts assembled, to check it all fits, which luckily it did. The Helmer drawer from IKEA was rolled into position, and it all worked out just as I’d imagined it.

Of course, after this I had to take the fake wall out again to start on the hidden cabling. Funnily enough, this was one of the things which eventually took longest, because it was a job I really disliked and went into over-enthusiastic procrastination mode. I used IKEA’s picture rails to hold the surge protected multi-sockets. I had those in the loft, because I’d initially bought to many in 2010 when I’d first changed some bits and bobs in the old living room.

Note that this was done after I finished the mosaic on the desk top, but I write an extra post for that. The Pacman mosaic is what really makes it the desk of joy.

   

The cabling was then hidden by the fake wall, which means it’s fairly easy to remove that one to add or change any cabling & hardware, because the L-shaped “wall” isn’t fixed, just pushed underneath. I then fixed the rope light behind the fake wall and its painted windows, and behind the lattice cut-outs.

Note that at this stage, in July/August, I had only fixed the new black flooring into the desk corner so I could build the desk and wouldn’t have to move it again when I finally got to the flooring.

Now onto another post and the Pacman mosaic, before showing off the whole thing in all its completed joy.

 

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