DIY KIDS DESK BUILD FOR HOMESCHOOLING

So, how is the whole transition back to school going? 

Thought so. Even though our boys are both going back to in person schooling, albeit a hybrid half day model, we’re still keeping their desks for virtual school at home setup and intact. There are just too many unknowns at this point, and desks are still incredibly hard to come by! 

With the holiday season coming up we know everyone is looking forward to cozy nights with the family, but the cozy days crammed at the kitchen table or single office desk need to come to an end. So we decided to create a DIY kids desk build tutorial for you to build simple desks for your home schooling needs. 

What You Will Need

• Pencil
• Tape Measure
• Miter Saw
• Speed Square
• Drill or Impact Driver
• 1” screws (cabinet screws are ideal)
• 1” or 2” construction screws
• Stain grade panels (this project used 20″ x 48″)
• 1”x4”x8’ pine boards

How To Make Simple Desks 

Once you have all of your materials it is time to go to work. 

1. First, decide what side of your stain grade panel will be the top. We preferred the side with the least amount of knots, if any at all, for the top. Once determined, flip over for your bottom. 
2. Next you must determine the proper height for your desk. For a kids desk you may want to make it a bit shorter to accommodate your child’s size, but we went with a more standard height of 28”. It works with the chairs we have.
3. To build your legs you will need to create 2 sets, each of which will form a rectangle shape. We took the width of our panel and subtracted 4 inches (2 per side) to create the top and bottom leg boards. Since our panel was 20 inches total, we made the tops and bottoms of each leg 16 inches.
4. Next, we determined the desired height of our desk, which was 28”. Since the thickness of the top panel was 1” we cut our vertical leg pieces at 27”.
5. Determine the above measurements for your desk legs and create 4 of each, per desk. We made 2 desks therefore needed 8 pieces in each size.
6. Now it is time to construct the legs. There are two methods to doing so: the first, by pre-drilling your screw holes on the outside of the vertical pieces to connect the horizontal pieces. The second would be to pre-drill pocket holes on the horizontal pieces. The benefit to using pocket holes is you can hide the screws completely. 
7. If you are going to pre-drill on the outside of the legs we recommend using 1” or 2” construction screws. If pocket hole construction is your jam, you can use 1” pocket hole screws. There is no right or wrong answer. 
8. Construct your legs. If you want to paint your legs now would be the time to do so!
9. Once your legs are made you want to flip your top panel over to expose the underside. From there you want to measure in 1” from each short side and one long side of your choosing – these will be the guides for attaching the legs. You can use your speed square to mark a distinct line, which will help you with placement.
10. Using 1” cabinet screws, attached each leg to the panel. We used 4 screws per leg.
11. Once you have both legs attached you’ll want to cut a piece for your cross brace. Measure from the ends of each leg to get a full length and cut a piece of pine board. 
12. Mark a line at 6” from the bottom of each leg – this is where you will place the bottom of your cross brace. Using your 1” cabinet screws attach the cross brace to your legs.
13. Flip over your desk and repeat steps for any additional desks you may construct. 
14. If you desire, you can stain or seal the panel with polyurethane before it sees any use. 
15. Place into your desired space and let the learning continue.

We hope you enjoyed this very quick DIY project and are able to add this purposeful and functional element into your home.

We’d like to thank Novo Building Products for sponsoring this post.

– Much Love