Hi all,

I have a very small office (1.73m x 1.73m) and I want to build a new desk and add some wall cabinets for storage. At the moment, I have an old computer desk from a school refit and another small table. They are arranged together in an L-shape in the corner.

I want to keep the general layout but add some cabinets for storing documents and other stuff. I also want to have one continuous desk top. My current set up has the two desk at different heights.

The door is a sliding door with the door on the inside of the office; this stops me from taking the main desk right to the wall.

See the sketchup pics I made

Attachment 131503 Attachment 131504 Attachment 131505

I was thinking that I could have cabinets along one wall supporting the end of the main desk top and the L counter top. The cabinets under the table, in the corner would be used for things I don't need access to often. The right hand side of the main desk needs some free support because of the sliding door. I will be putting the wall cabinets in the pics in as well.

  • Are there alternatives for the arrangment? Ideas anyone?
  • What do you think of the dark top and light coloured doors?
I got a lot of cabinet doors from a display home so I would like to use them to reduce costs. But they are light coloured, pretty much the colour shown.

So the cabinets and desk size will be made to fit the doors.


Now to the desk top How to make it? the main desk will be about 830mm deep and the room width is 1730mm. The side counter area will be about 450mm deep.



How thick does the desk top need to be?
  • solid timber - thinking about walnut or dark wood. This is expensive - but I can work it with hand tools.
  • Substrate with veneer. - Seems it would be cheaper but I haven't worked with veneer before.
With the veneer option,

  • What substrate would be used?
  • How would it be constructed?
  • It appears that here in Japan I can get veneer sheet about 0.2mm thick. How would it be attached?
  • It also appears that I can get 4mm or 2.5mm thick ply with veneer attached.
  • I may also be able to get lumber core with veneer all around. Up to 30mm thick but I am not sure of the lumber core material. A lot of stuff I have seen here is softwood, very light and a little like balsa.
  • Can thin veneer be stained?
  • What finish would you recommend? Oil?

  • I can get Japanese Tamo veneer very cheap. As well as Tamo free-cut (solid wood top already glued up to make the table top. Can I stain this or apply a tinted coating to get a nice darker wood finish?
Just as a last note, I have a hand tools only shop. no table saw etc.

Thanks for any advice, thoughts, or ideas.

Rob