DIY Pipe & Butcher Block L Desk

I’ve had the same desk for 10 years. It’s been a great desk, but I wanted something new. So, after a lot of research and Pinterest perusing, I decided on a Pipe Desk. I had three requirements: (1) It needs to be an L Desk. I have many uses for my desk and I like being able to turn left and right for more space. (2) It can’t have a bar in the center, I want as much legroom as possible under there. (3) I need my tower off the desk, it needs a place underneath the desk. First, here’s a photo of my old desk from a few years ago.

Like I said, it’s a nice desk and I plan on keeping it. But it has really poor cable management options and a lot of space in the center is taken up by the legs. I also wanted a different style.

Here’s my new, finished desk!

DIY!

I started by purchasing a 1 ½" x 25" x 12’ Maple Butcher Block from Lumber Liquidators. I got it during a big sale at over 50% off. Even at 50% off, this was the most expensive piece of the build.

I started by using a circular saw to cut the two primary pieces of the desk. One is 64" long, the other is 39" long. 39" because with the 25" depth, it makes exactly 64" for both sides of the desk.

Here is a photo of the 64" piece.

and the 39" piece.

Next up, sanding. A lot of sanding. I started at 80 grit sandpaper with a Random Orbital Sander and worked my way up from there, then 120, then 220. This gave me a nice smooth surface. Here’s a quick test fit before I start staining.

I decided to go with Minwax products and started with their Pre-Stain Wood Conditioner. Here’s a photo comparison of one board with Pre-Stain, and the other without. The wood grain is really starting to pop!

Next, the stain. After completely over-researching the color that I wanted and a bit of testing, I went with Minwax Special Walnut 224. Here’s a couple of photos of the bottom of the desk after staining.

After staining both sides, I started laying down coats of Minwax Semi-Gloss Fast-Drying Polyurethane. I put down 3 coats on the bottom of the desk and 5 coats on the top, sanding after every other coat with 320 grit sandpaper.

My final coat was with Minwax Wipe-On Gloss Polyurethane because it produced the least amount of bubbles during application, which resulted in the smoothest surface. The “Gloss” Wipe-On Poly isn’t quite as glossy as Minwax’s normal gloss poly, it’s somewhere between high-gloss and semi-gloss. I really like how it turned out. It looks overly shiny in this next photo because it was still wet when I took the photo.

Time to start piecing together the legs. Here are all of the parts that I got at Lowe’s. Lowe’s will cut and thread pipe at your desired length. I must say I was a little hesitant to ask one of their employees to make 19 cuts on galvanized steel pipe, all threaded on both ends. When I did ask I got a blank stare at first, his eyes glazed over. I was certain that I was this guy’s worst nightmare. However, after a short pause he cheerfully responded with “let’s see that cut list! What are you building?” He was extremely helpful and positive about the whole thing. This is the single reason that I go to Lowe’s and not Home Depot, I tend to have a better customer experience with the employees at Lowe’s, no matter how crazy my requests are. Here’s the result:

The photo above is after removing all of the stickers and degreasing the pipe with Lacquer Thinner, which took a few hours of wiping with a cloth. After they were all cleaned, I started piecing it together.

After checking to make sure the two halves of the desk would sit flush, tightening down the pipes where I needed to to make it level, I painted them a dark, flat grey.

At this point, the desk is ready to be put together, but I still needed something to put my computer tower on. So, I cut a 11" piece out of the remaining piece of Butcher Block and took it through the same (sand, pre-stain, stain, poly) process.

It’s finally time to start putting it all together! You may have noticed that the shorter side of the desk only has three legs and thought to yourself “that’s definitely going to fall over!” You’ll remember in the beginning that I didn’t want anything in my way under the desk, so below is a photo of my solution for that. The supports are only screwed in to the side with four legs, which is supporting the three-legged half. I’ve also used two latches to keep the pieces aligned and tightly together. 

Time for the finishing touches. In the next photo is the 9-Outlet Surge Protector that I mounted to the bottom of the desk, as well as the J Cable Channel for the cable management. There is a cable channel on each side of the desk so that I can run cables from one side of the desk to the other.

Here’s the final again!