DIY: A $75 Desk with a Stealth Touch of Glamor

Spotted on lifestyle blog Camille Styles, a simple desk with Ikea legs and a wooden top assembled from hardware store parts, stealth touch of glamor included. The DIY design is the creation of Austin, Texas, interior designer and Camille Styles columnist Claire Zinnecker, who, after searching for the perfect simple, affordable work table, built one for herself. Total cost: less than $75.

The inspired detail that makes the design that much more interesting: Claire trimmed the front of the desktop with a gold metal band made from aluminum carpet edging: “I was wandering around Home Depot, waiting for something to jump out at me,” she says. “And then I saw the carpet trim. I love the way it completes the desk (and protects me from splinters). Everything is better with a little gold.”

Photographs by Kate Stafford for Camille Styles.

Above: Claire built her desk using a pair of Ikea Lerberg trestle legs in white powder-coated steel, $10 each. The wooden top simply rests on the legs and was built entirely from hardware store parts. “You need to have basic hammer and drill skills,” Claire tells us, “but the sawing part you can leave to your hardware store–they usually have a saw and will cut materials to your specs.”

Above: Claire keeps her desktop clutter free but well accessorized with, among other things, Hay’s colorful metal Kaleido Trays from Nannie Inez, starting at $16 each, and white-framed prints–a Fox poster by graphic designer Silke Bonde, €60 , and a graphic design by Alyson Fox (whose Modern Open Kitchen we recently spotlighted).

Above: To give the desktop a handmade look–and ensure that it’s thick enough not to buckle–Claire used varying widths of pale knotty wood known as white wood. “A sheet of plywood would also work, as long as it’s not too thin,” she says.

Above L: The metal edge is hammered in place. Carpet edging is traditionally used on floors for joining carpet to wood or tile. Claire sourced hers, which is extra wide, at Breed & Co., a hardware store in Austin. Above R: The desktop balances on the legs: “The legs are very sturdy; I’ve never had a tipping issue,” says Claire, “and this way, it’s easy to move the desk when I rearrange, which I love to do.”