Building a Modern Desk - Part 2

We went out to Lowe's last night to pick out the wood. We chose hardwood, 3/4 inch thick, 4x8 feet. These things were huge, but I had looked them up online prior, and had mapped out how we needed them cut. Before I got really into doing home projects for myself, I was always really nervous about how I would get the wood cut, but Lowe's kindly does the cutting for you, for a really minimal price. We got 2 sheets of the wood, and they cut them right to size for us.

For anyone wondering, the cubes making up our storage system are all 14in x 14in, and the desk will sit 29.5 inches above the floor. Our desks are 73 inches long, with about 52 inches of that free hanging. (Well, not really, since it will be secured, but you get my drift).

We also wanted the desk to be black, so we picked up a gallon of white Valspar primer, and a quart of black gloss Valspar paint. I've always been a Valspar fan myself, based on coverage, but what paint you use is obviously up to you.

On Saturday, we got right down to business:

Silas sanded down all the rough edges of the boards with a block sander.

Then Tygg supervised me painting the boards with primer. 

Finally, at the end of the day, we painted them to the glossy black. (Note, this is not all the boards, but all we could fit in the photo).

All in all, prepping the boards, priming them, and painting them was an all day process. As you can probably tell from the last photo, it was pretty late at night, and so I apologize for unforgiving glare from our overheard lighting.

[Update - Sunday, June 12, 2011 - We finished it! Check out part 3 here!]