DIY Floating Desk with Storage

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One of the rooms in our home I am most proud of is our kitchen. We have worked really hard to create a beautiful, inviting and functional space for our family using what was already here and carrying out a lot of do-it-yourself projects.

During the holidays we shared the latest update to our kitchen, these beautiful DIY floating desks with storage. And as promised, today we are sharing how we designed and built them.

But first, I want to take you back a few years to when we moved into our home and our kitchen looked nothing like it does today (you can see a few before photos here). The fridge and pantry were originally on the wall that our hand-lettered sign now hangs, creating an awkward layout. To create more space we moved both the fridge and pantry cabinets to the wall you see them on now. It immediately opened up the kitchen and gave us the space to add the island we wanted.

Making this move was great for the flow of our kitchen, but the pantry and fridge were lost against that big expanse of wall. That’s when our next kitchen project started, we built open shelving on either side to fill in the empty space, and underneath we added these simple black tables from Ikea (I don’t really have a great example of these tables as I tried my best to keep them out of our photography!).

It worked for a time, but late last year we decided to update this space yet again. We wanted to mimic the look of our island’s butcher block countertop with simple, streamlined floating desks. After we discussed the design, Nick got to work making them a reality.

GET THE LOOK

Now, this little built-in area of our kitchen looks like it has always been there. The contrast between the white cabinets and the warmth of the natural wood desks catch me every time I walk into our kitchen, and I just love the simple design.

In keeping with the clean, streamlined look of the desks we designed built-in storage to hide unsightly power cords and chargers. There is a small length of wood at the back of each desk that simply lifts to reveal a hidden pocket – it’s the perfect solution for keeping the desks looking clean and organized.

Just before Nick gets to the tutorial on these floating desks I wanted to share a little bit about the art you may have noticed in these photos. Recently I shared a little about my creative passions and my hopes for this year on Instagram (you can read the post here). I was inspired by this beautiful gallery wall created by my friend, Lucy, she is such a talented artist, and I felt encouraged to try my own abstract watercolor paintings – these are my first attempt. 🙂 And the abstract-like painting on the other side of the pantry (in the gold frame) is actually a finger painting by our daughter. We are truly trying to embrace and nurture creativity in our home, and I love being able to display our own works of art.

Here are the instructions on how we built a 36″ x 25″ floating desk. You can tailor the measurements to fit your space, or if you are not building your desk between two walls, you can add legs at the front using some 2″ x 4″ boards or turned legs from your local hardware store.

Materials

2 – 1″ x 6″ x 8′ pine boards
2 – 1″ x 4″ x 8′ pine boards
1 – 3/4″ x 20″ x 36″ Pine Shop Shelving (or you could use plywood and cut it to the proper size)
10 – 2 1/2″ construction screws
32 – 1 1/4″ Kreg pocket hole screws
Wood Glue
Minwax Pre-Stain Wood Conditioner
Minwax Provincial Wood Stain