Desk Extension

This instructable is about how I made a small desk big!

Many years ago I bought a vintage dresser at a yard sale to use as a computer desk. I removed the center drawer and installed a sliding keyboard, refinished the wood, and put it into use. The desktop, however, became a bit crowded over the years, as I added a router (seen on the right) which sat on a wire rack, and some speakers that I mounted inside of an old radio housing (seen on the left). This is the "before" photo.

I teach an adult Sunday school class each week, and since I use this desk to write my own lessons, I really needed a bit more room on the desktop for reference materials, and I needed a larger monitor so I could split the screen and have my working document on the left and online reference materials on the right.

So, I decided I needed to expand the space available on the desktop. To do this my plan was to remount the router so no desktop space was needed, and to increase the depth on the left side of the desk.

The materials I used were minimal:

• 1"x6" lumber (approximately 6 feet in total)
• 1"x2" lumber (about 10 inches)
• 10"x5" piece of 1/2 inch plywood
• about a dozen screws
• wood glue
• flat black enamel paint
• wood stain
• polyurethane
• a couple of paint brushes
• sandpaper

I had to purchase the 1x6, but everything else came from material I already had on hand.

The tools required were simple:

• a saw (I used my band saw, but any saw will do)
• drill & bits
• screwdriver

For the riser, I used the 10x5 inch plywood for the router to mount on, and added a length of 1x6 lumber attached to the bottom of the plywood. I used a piece of 1x2 lumber on the front mainly to help with stability. I used glue and screws to attach the 1x6, using two screws coming in from the top, two screws attaching the 1x2, and another screw attaching the 1x2 to the 1x6. This made for a very stable mounting. I added a small piece of thin masonite at the back to allow for the small amount of desk overhang.

I mounted the riser to the back of the desk using additional screws.

This allowed full use of the desktop on the right side for other things.

The desk extension on the left side is simply a shelf I built to attach to the back. I originally thought about building the shelf across the entire width of the desk, but decided against it. I only needed the additional room on the left, and a full width extension would actually get in the way of the many cables at the back of the desk. So, I made the extension 23" wide, which allowed me to move the speakers and my lamp 5.5" to the back.

The construction of the extension was simple. I glued and screwed the 1x6's together (as shown in the first photo), and added a brace to make sure everything was ridged. In the first photo you will notice some thin masonite attached to the shelf. This was a spacer I needed because the desktop had a 1/8th inch overhang at the back. This allowed the shelf to sit flush with the desktop.

I stained and varnished the extension before mounting it to the back of the desk with screws. My stain didn't match the stain on the desk, but I didn't worry about it since the shelf wouldn't be visible.

The final step was to install a larger monitor!

This was a simple project, only requiring simple cuts to the wood, and everything screwed together. I didn't measure how much time it took, but most of the time required was watching paint dry!