This past January we were finally able to move our "offices" out of

Elsie's home and into a studio house. While at Elsie's, our team
included four, full-time individuals (including Elsie and me). We all
worked at Elsie's dining room table. This setup worked well for us
and allowed us to save up enough to move to a "real" office finally!
As we planned to move, our team was also beginning to grow. We
added two more full-time employees, and we knew we needed
space for everyone to work comfortably. We like keeping our whole
team together in one room as we work as much as possible. It really
helps with communication and gives us a sense of what everyone is
doing to see if anyone needs help with something. And I think we
feel like more of a team when we're together. So we ideally wanted
a desk that could comfortably sit six people plus all our computers. I
also really wanted to try and keep laptop cords organized/stored as
they were in use. They can be easy to trip on if you don't plan for
them. Elsie also had the idea that the desk could have cubby holes
or have two layers, so people could store extra papers, notebooks,
or pens without cluttering the top of the desk.
I thought this desk could easily be a very budget-friendly project if
we made it ourselves, and we could more easily have all the
features we needed. So, we made it. Here's how:
Supplies:

-two 3/4" x 48" x 78" OSB subfloor panels

-six 1 1/2" x 3 1/2" x 48" boards (or three 1 1/2" x 3 1/2" x 96"
boards)
-two 1 1/2" x 5" x 48" boards (or one 1 1/2" x 5" x 96")
-six 1/4 x 3/4 x 8 interior stain-grade pine screen moulding
-box of fifty 2 screws (you won't use them all)
-thirty 1/4" steel brads
-power saw
-power drill
-pliers
-hammer
-1 1/2" spade bit
-wood glue
-polyurethane (high gloss), optional
-less than a quart of white paint (I used leftover primer we had
around), optional
-paint brushes

This was my first time working with OSB board. I got the idea from
Trey's old loft (where he lived before we married and moved in
together). His floors were made up of exposed OSB panels, and it
was actually sort of pretty. Once I discovered how insanely cheap
this material was, I knew it would come in handy with a project
someday. :)

Total cost: $98

This is only the cost of supplies we purchased specifically for this
project. This does not include the cost of tools, as we already owned
those and use them in many of our wood-based projects.
Before we jump into how we made this table, I'd like to make a qui
ck note about my dad. As you can see from the photo above, I creat
ed this project with my dad, Don Chapman. I love working with m
y dad on bigger projects for my home or the blog because he's a much
more experienced craftsman than myself. So, I get to learn from his
expertise as we work on projects together. I also want to inform you tha
t if you plan to create a table like this, similar in size, you wi
ll need to work with a partner. Just the sheer weight of some of the
materials for this project requires two people. Most projects on ABM c
an be created by yourself, but not this one. So, get a buddy or call
up your dad and spend a Saturday together making this. :)
Ste One:Build the table body. We had our OSB panels cut down to the
3/4" x 48" x 78" size; they typically come sized to 3/4" x 48" x
96". We purchased our panels from Lowe's, and because they are
so heavy and hard to work with, we had them cut them down to the si
ze we needed to fit our space. It's always a good idea to measure yo
r space when you're planning to build a large table. Older houses or
custom spaces often need tables in less than

Cut the 1 1/2" x 3 1/2" boards to become the inside of your table.
This is going to make up your cubby holes and also add more
stability to your table. Above you see how we designed ours. Once
you have the wood cut, screw in place. Add the second layer of the
table body and screw into the boards as well. This will create a kind
of sandwich over those boards you see above.
Now, if needed, flip the table so the bottom is facing up. We're about
to add legs.
Step Two: Make your own legs. We created the legs for our table
from the 1 1/2" x 5" boards. Cut each of your two boards in half,
creating four total pieces. Now draw a straight line from one edge
down to the center of the opposite edge. We used a chalk line, but
you could just as easily use a pencil. Cut out the legs.
We first attached 2 ft of the 1 1/2" x 3 1/2" board to the center of
each side of the table. Then we screwed the legs into this
board.
Step Three:Decide how tall you want your table to be. I highly re
ommend measuring the chairs you plan to use with the table. You don
t want the tops of your thighs smashed up against the bottom of th
e table. We have adjustable office chairs that we use with this tab
le, so that gave us some wiggle room. We wanted our table to be 2
5 1/2" off the ground
. So, after attaching the legs we measured them and cut off the
excess.
Step Four:As you can see, the edges of our table looked pretty rou
gh. OSBboard is made up of lots of wood shavings, so the edges are no
tsmooth like solid wood boards. To add a little more polish to o
ur table, we added moulding. Simply measure the moulding to fit the e
dges of your table and cut them to size. Add a little wood glue to th
edge of the table. Hold the moulding in place, pressed agai
nst the wood glue (wipe off any excess you see). Now secure t
Brads can be hard to work with since they are so small. It's easy to
smash your fingers with a hammer as you work with brads. One way
to avoid this is to hold the brad in place with a pair of pliers. That
way if you miss, you will smash the pliers and not your fingers!
Step Five:Add holes for cords. We knew that multiple laptops woul
d be at this table daily. This meant multiple power cords. To keep
our work area looking cleaner, and to better store the cords safely
so people weren't tripping over them all the time, we decided to add t
wo large holes toward the center of our table. This allows us to kee
p all our cords centered and away from the edges of the table
(we have an outlet bu

To do this we simply used a 1 1/2" spade to create the holes.

Measure in from the edge of the table on both ends so that your
holes match up with the bottom holes (on the other side of the
table).

Step Six: Paint the trim. We wanted to add just a little color to our
table. So I painted the moulding with primer, to match our white
office chairs and contrast with the black walls in the room.
Step Seven: Seal with an additional coat of polyurethane. This is
totally optional, as OSB panels come pretreated. But we found a few
spots where the wood shavings felt less than smooth. So we added a
couple of additional coats of polyurethane (high gloss) to help
smooth the table top more.