Contemporary desk and file cabinet

[Gene Davis]

I saw these pieces at Pottery Barn and took a pic so I could see about replicating them. The Barn sells them painted, in gloss white or gloss black.

Shown here from my Sketchup model, which is not complete with all the details and joinery, but is complete enough to see what needs to happen, build-wise.

I thought the desk top might be best done using 3/4 MDF, edged four sides in hardwood. For the box case of the file cabinet, a mix of 12mm and 19mm baltic birch plywood. Same for drawerboxes in the desk. All else done using something like yellow poplar, for its paintability.

Taper jigs will be built for ripping the skewed faces of the legs, and some routing and careful trimming will be done for the various leg mortises.

Please comment on my choices of materials. I would like alternatives if they might work better.

[Ethan Melad]

my first thought is not about the materials, but the stretcher connecting the legs; it seems like it's not in a great location, and could easily be in the way of one's feet/shins (assuming the desk is not 48" deep...).

[Jamie Buxton]

I agree with Ethan: the stretcher looks like it is going to break your shins, and it prevents the drawer unit from using the full depth of the desk top.

And let me pull out one of my rants... Horizontal stretchers don't provide a great deal of structural benefit. Imagine you're in front of the desk. Squat down and look at it. What you see is great big open rectangles. They can easily rack into parallelograms. That is, the table top can shake left-right pretty easily.

A much stronger design is to make triangles instead of rectangles. For instance, run a short piece of wood at 45 degrees from the X point in the legs up to the desk top, and do the same on the other side. That will be a jillion times less shaky than the little stretcher in this drawing. The braces don't even have to come down as far as that X crossing. Ten inches would suffice. And if you place the top of the brace to the rear of the top, you get room for the rolling drawer unit and your legs.

[Yonak Hawkins]

...run a short piece of wood at 45 degrees from the X point in the legs up to the desk top, and do the same on the other side.

The file cabinet would be enough to keep the desk from racking. The diagonal piece, or a long horizontal member that is low to the floor and toward the rear, would only be necessary to support the "X" brace.

[Jamie Buxton]

The file cabinet would be enough to keep the desk from racking...

True, if the file cabinet is fastened to the rest of the desk. I presumed it is a separate piece.

[Mike Wilkins]

Ditch the cross-stretcher, move the file cabinet under the top, and attach the top base to the top of the file cabinet. This will stiffen the entire desk, and prevent racking.

[Gene Davis]

Oops! Got the wrong store for the items. Not Pottery Barn, it is from Crate and Barrel. The desk has three drawers and is separate from the drawers box. Pics attached from C&B's website. Nice piece. I sat at it at the store, moved it around, checked for racking, etc. Solid. Nice design.

[Yonak Hawkins]

Oops! The desk has three drawers and is separate from the drawers box.

Since that's the case, I agree with Jamie about adding diagonal supports at the top rear.

[Gene Davis]

Don't misjudge the rigidity of this little thing, as sold every day by Crate & Barrel. I have seen it, touched it, moved it around. It's pretty solid.

Here is a view of my 3D model, shot looking up. Drawers not shown. The rear apron is doweled or domino'd into the leg assembly. I lowered the rear stretcher down the leg to match the original. Had it up higher before.

What do you all think of materials for this?