12 Super Simple DIY Home Office Desk Ideas for 2024

If you find yourself working from home more often now than ever before, it can be quite freeing. However, it also makes you realize that your office furniture determines your productivity levels.

Most people find that the kitchen table or a fold-up one isn’t enough. Plus, with new technology, you can get an adjustable standing desk that moves with you as you work. That way, you can stand and get a break from the ill effects of sitting all day.

While the spread of pandemic has caused the world to take a slow pace, at the same time, things at the ground level were changing at a very fast pace; for example, work-from-home is now a new normal. There was no secret that working from home would be a permanent thing in this rapidly evolving world. However, many claim that remote working has given them flexible hours and places to work from home; in point of fact, diy-ing a whole home office is a hectic task. As you manage to prepare a proper home office setup, you need certain essential equipment for a home office desk that must provide you complete accessibility to work as much as you work in the office.

Some might not want to go out and buy a full desk or don’t have the money. However, there are plenty of DIY home office desk ideas to help you come up with something unique that meets your needs.

Remember, your space should be comfortable and functional. Sometimes, a customized desk built to your specifications can get expensive. Luckily, there are many DIY home office desk ideas to help you create your own.

Here are some home office desk essentials to help you build a proper DIY home office desk for your office setup for remote working. Learn how to make a desk for the home office today!

12 Super Simple DIY Home Office Desk Ideas

1. The Pottery Barn Inspired Desk

With this home office desk DIY plan, you just need a regular corner desk and some wooden file cabinets. Paint your cabinets and desktop in white. Now, remove the hardware and legs from the desk and add braces to the back corner.

Don’t get rid of all the legs; you need all but the ones where the file cabinets go. Consider putting the cabinets together or space them out separately. Just make sure that the bottom part of the desktop doesn’t interfere with the placement.

You’ve got tons of room to work and some added storage down below.

2. Use Your Own Tabletop with an Adjustable Base

Learning how to build a homemade desk doesn’t have to be challenging. For your DIY standing desk, you just need the SmartDesk DIY from Autonomous. There are various colors and models to choose from, giving you plenty of ways to make it your own.

Your DIY home office desk goes from 25.4 inches up to 51 inches, making it easy to stand and work when the need arises.

Now, your only worry is finding the right tabletop. If you’ve got something made of wood (rectangular), this is a great choice. Plus, the homemade standing desk frame goes from 40 to 73 inches long. Therefore, you can customize it and have a longer or shorter one based on the tabletop you’ve got.

The frame itself holds up to 300 pounds, so even if you’ve got a large slab of wood, it should be fine. Don’t forget to account for all of your desk accessories in your home office desk DIY plan. Monitors, laptops, keyboards, and everything else can get heavy if you’re not careful.

3. IKEA Desk

If you don’t work at your desk all that often, the IKEA standing desk idea might be ideal. Hook up a computer monitor or smart TV to the wall. Then, use the standing desk kit from IKEA, which uses metal tubes as the legs and a wooden top. Sit it on top of your filing cabinet, and you can work whenever the need arises.

This DIY home office desk might not be suitable for long days at work. However, if you’re just typing up a few things when you get home or for an hour, this can be a great home office setup.

4. Designing and Building Your New Desk

If you’re quite handy, you can create a home office DIY plan and build it to your specifications. This is a more elaborate project, but it can make for an ergonomic home office if you get the right tools. Consider the option to stand and work, though; your legs and back are sure to thank you later!

Building a stable, stylish, and solid desk from scratch isn’t difficult, but it’s also not the easiest project. Still, you get exactly what you want.

Consider sawhorse legs, which can add stability and look great for people walking into the office. It’s easy to take three pieces of wood and glue them together for each leg. You can even hollow out some of the centers to hide your internet cables and power cords (very clever!)

 Then, grab an old wooden door, sand it, cut it, and paint it how you want!

5. Mini Laptop Desk

We all know that there are times you can’t lock yourself into the den or living room and work. If you’ve got to be in the general household to take care of kids, another of the top DIY home office desk ideas is to create a mini laptop desk.

Laptops are portable, and that means you can take them anywhere. However, they come in all sizes, so be careful when taking measurements for your desk.

To build a desk for your mini laptop, cut the wood to the size you want. Generally, laminated pine is a great choice with regular pine for the legs and risers.

Cut the pieces to your specifications, and then cut your cable hole. Use a coin here to get an idea of how much space you need.

Now, you can cut the angled edges with a compound miter saw. Assemble all of the pieces with screws and adhesive. From there, you can plug the holes and paint your new desk!

6. Sit-Stand Corner Desk

 Do you want to learn how to make a standing desk? Most people think that it means you’ve got to stand and use it all the time. However, you can create a sit-stand corner desk, as well. This home office desk DIY plan isn’t very tricky, but it does take some time to get everything together.

The first thing you must do is choose a standing desk frame. Autonomous has a kit where you can select the traditional layout or a corner desk. Just remember that you need two tabletops of different lengths.

Each of the sides is adjustable from 42.3 to 70.8 inches and from 42.1 to 70.6 inches. Therefore, you’re sure to have a tabletop that meets your needs and those specifications.

It does hold 330 pounds, which is a bit more than the other desk frame we talked about for the regular standing desk. However, this includes the tabletop, so be careful how you plan it.

Learning how to make a desk for home office use isn’t hard, but it does take some time. Good tabletop options include:

• Doors
•  Windows
• Old kitchen tabletops
• Kitchen cabinets (if they’re long/wide enough)

You can get crazy and do just about anything you want. That way, it’s personalized and unique to your style and tastes.

7. Home Studio Desk

Most DIY home office desk ideas require you to buy all the office supplies and put them together. However, with this option, you just need four legs and a tabletop to make the main base of the desk. Then, you can take another piece of wood (kitchen cabinet door, perhaps) and build another shelf for the monitor and keyboard. 

With that, you may need some steel tubing to create the extra height for the shelf. That way, it sits up tall enough that you can easily see your computer while sitting. 

8. Aluminum and Birch Desk

This type of DIY home office desk was designed specifically for someone’s needs. It had to be big enough to open a textbook fully, have a notebook computer, and a regular pen/paper notebook to write in. Plus, it required durability. Though you could change yours to have nooks and crannies, this one didn’t because it was for a child. 

To make a desk with birch and aluminum, you need:

• 1 4x8’ ¾-inch birch plywood piece
• 4 3/8-inch tee nuts
• 4 3/8-inch hanger bolts
• 10¾-inch #8 stainless screws
• 1 12’ 4x4-inch Douglas Fir
• 12 8x12-inch galvanized steel flashing (precut)
• 2 8’1” aluminum angles
• Polyurethane finish
•  Wide tape
•  Glue
• Double stick tape
• 1 3x6’ 0.118-inch acrylic sheet
•  Car wax 

Though it’s a long list of materials, it’s quite easy to put it together! 

9. The Under 30 Desk

Learning how to build a homemade desk can get expensive. However, if you’re on a tight budget, you can make a desk under $30. Practicality and tons of spending money don’t have to go hand-in-hand.

You need:

• 9-cm wide CLS as the main frame (one support and legs)
• 6-cm CLS timber (visible supports)
• 18mm thick plywood (desktop)

Cut the plywood into 4’inch plants and place it as the desktop. Make sure there’s a small gap between the planks. You can use glue and screws to hold it all together, and paint it if you want!

10. Wall-mounted Desk

Most DIY home office desk ideas are similar in nature. You have a base/frame and a tabletop, but you can use just about anything as materials to build an ultimate desk setup. However, with the wall-mounted desk, there are no legs!

Before you start this project, make sure you have strong walls. You might have to put in anchors to hold the full weight of the tabletop.

For the tabletop, you can use just about anything. Repurpose an old door, rectangular kitchen table top, refrigerator door (with everything removed), or anything else.

Measure your space and what you’re using as the top to ensure it fits in the area you want it. From there, attach cables to each side of the table. They need to be pretty durable, and you can find them at a hardware store.

Know the weight of your tabletop, as well. That way, it’s easy to determine if the cables can support that weight.

Attach them with screws and glue. You may need help as someone should hold the tabletop in position. That way, you know where to install the cables into the wall. Consider using wall-mount anchors for more durability and stability. 

To ensure that the tabletop doesn’t tip to the floor, consider adding some brackets at the bottom of the base (where you want it positioned). Screw them into the wall so that the tabletop sits on them and stays in place.

As a bonus, you can fold up the table when you’re not using it. Just make sure that you have the right anchors and cables to keep it in the upright position.

Here are a few other tips:

• Before attaching it to the wall, make sure your legs and the chair go under the desk.
• Consider the accessories/tools or office equipment you need to put on the desk and make sure that the tabletop and cables support it.
• Remember that this setup might not be ideal when working long hours. 

11. Shelf-Supported Desk

If you’re someone who always needs tons of organizational space, consider building a desk from some old shelves. Take two shelves (they can be old, but make sure that they’re supportive and stable). Place the shelves far enough apart from the DIY home office desk to fit the tabletop you choose.

You can also create your own top by cutting/sanding wood to meet your needs. Lay that on top of the shelves. Use nails or screws to keep everything together. Then, paint it to meet your needs.

12. Sawed Apart Desk

For those boring corners and awkward spaces in the office, you can add flair and brighten it up by upcycling an old kitchen table. Cut off the ends of the table (with the legs). Fill up any gaps and cracks and prime/paint it. Mount the table end (cut part) to the wall, and you’ve got a small customized desk.

Depending on how much room you need, you can cut the table legs off further in on the table. Just make sure that the legs are facing outward from the wall to add support.

15 Essentials and Equipment to Combine with Your DIY Home Office Desk

Now, how to build a home office desk is no longer difficult. Let’s find some office items to go with it. There are a few essential home office desk equipment that you need for a functional office system they are:

1. Desk Lamp

Nobody wants working blindfolded, right? Dim lights cause eyesight problems. It is even worse for a worker who works the night shift. So a desk lamp is the first thing you consider looking for at your home office desk. Look for a desk lamp you can adjust and use along with the features like brightness adjustability or color variety. In this case, get a Led Desk Lamp that fits perfectly with your home office desk.

2. Monitor Arm

Yes, monitor and laptop stands are excellent options for work from a kit to hold your computer. However, there is an option of a monitor arm as well. This item on your home office desk allows you to adjust the angle of your monitor anytime or whatever position you like based on the posture of your body.

3. Desk Pad

Desk pads increase the aesthetics of your home office desk and allow you to write things down. It provides a stable surface to write on. Besides that, it comes in many different colors that make your desk more elegant and stylish.

4. Desk Organizer

An unorganized desk can significantly leave a negative impact on your performance. Apart from that, it makes you lose your working equipment. Not only is it a must have equipment for home-based offices but it is also essential for offices as well. Therefore, every work-from-home kit should have a desk organizer.

5. Desk Tray

The desk tray serves the function of an organization and is a good match with your DIY home office desk. Its function is similar to that of desk organizers; however, the only difference is that they store files and documents. This way, you will have a clean home office desk to work on while organizing your papers properly in a desk tray.

6. Cable Tray

We all know that working with computers and multiple electronic gadgets is common among office workers. However, the cables get tangled now and then. Entangling cables annoy people and take unnecessary time. Therefore, having them organized is a must thing to avoid mess in your DIY home office furniture setup. A cable tray seems to be handy and functional equipment for your home office desk.

7. Desk Clock and Calendar

Why would a clock and calendar be essential to home office desk equipment when we have a computer to tell us these things? Reports say that keeping this in front of one's eyes will lessen the chances of procrastination, so who would not want to meet deadlines on time.

8. Desk Drawer Organizer

Putting some desk drawer organizers in your desk's storage compartments is an excellent way to keep work flowing efficiently. It looks good, keeps clutter contained, and saves you the trouble of looking for the occasional odd item. The best part is always an option available regardless of your home office desk setup or drawer size.

9. Desk Cell Phone stand

We are talking about working from home. Meetings are held online via phones or tablets. A smartphone stand is a must-have work-from-home essential for every home office and also your DIY home office desk. It makes skype and zoom meetings much easier.

10. Desk Office Decorations

Apart from your DIY home office desk, chair, and other essential office equipment, some workers want to add DIY home desk ideas and decoration to give an actual office look to their home-based office. This will eventually add value to your performance.

11. Go Green with Desk Plant

This is a good option for your home office desk ideas. According to many office workers, plants in the office are the source of calmness. Along with the other office desk equipment, having plants on the desk will give you a greener vibe and a nice aesthetic look to your desk.

12. Portable Phone Charger

In today's smart world, most of the work is done through phones. From calls to voice notes, phones are used all the time. In this case, a portable phone charger is essential office equipment to keep your phone charged all the time.

13. Noise-Canceling Headphones

Workers find themselves distracted by the noises around the house. You can avoid this issue by having this office equipment by your desk. This way, you can perform with better focus while working remotely.

14. Filing Cabinet

Drawers or desk trays tend to be enough to store all your files and important documents. However, some people handle tons of paperwork every day. For that, one may need a filing cabinet beside your home office desk. This way, you will have all the papers managed in an organized way without dumping in on your desk.

15. Washi Tape Creativity Hub

You may need it when building a home office desk. Washi tape is a budget-friendly and functional home office desk decor that lets you personalize your work essentials. You use it to color-code tasks in your planner and keep tags on relevant pages, or you could use it to decorate your home office desk and other devices. However, one of the best uses of washi tape is for organizing cables. Overall, these strips can help you keep your office significantly tidy and stylish.

Conclusion

Now you know how to build a homemade desk. It’s no longer difficult. Learning how to make a desk for home office use is easy with these 12 tips. Whether you’re working at home most of the time or just once or twice a week, they can help you sit comfortably and be productive.

However, if you do plan to work from home a lot, consider the DIY home office desk ideas that focus on a standing frame. That way, you can sit and stand throughout your day, work hard, and have fewer aches and pains from sitting.

Your DIY home office desk can be the highlight of the entire room. Guests are sure to be amazed, and you have something that fits your space and preferences!