double up your work space

dan and erin needed to fill their guest room / office with some thing that...
1) wasn't expensive and
2) looked good

so with a tape measure in hand, they spent 4 hours at the college park, maryland ikea and left with 2 vika amon 4' 11" table tops, 4 vika curry legs, 1 malm 2-drawer chest, and 1 set of 6" capita legs.

and here's what they constructed.

"we put the two vika table tops end to end, and installed the vika curry legs at the furthest opposite ends. two capita 6" legs split the middle seam, and sit on top of the malm chest. the chest supports the seam at the middle, and creates a storage space underneath.

i also installed the summera pull-out keyboard tray, but the vika tops are so hollow that it's already starting to strip out. in all, we spent $120, and the desk really has helped our new office/guest room.

we plan on finishing off the room with a 5' vika amon table top used as a headboard, and hanging the lack shelves above the desk area horizontally for more mementos and storage."

Updated! February 25, 2009
Reinforced double table
Beth was looking for an idea on how to enlarge her current desk without spending too much and gave her better access to her file drawer when she came across the hack above. But after reading the comments, was worried about having enough support along the seam. This is her solution.

She says, "My solution was to add 2 cheap legs to support the back, and screw the Capita legs into a 3/4" thick slab of plywood. This gave a lot of support to the desktop, and the plywood thickness made up the difference between the end of the leg and the desktop (legs were 12" long at the fully adjusted length and I had more space than that, but the next size up would've been too long). I then ironed on some edge banding to cover the front of the plywood slab to finish it off!

Products used:

- 2 Capita 4" legs

- 2 Vika Amon desk tops

- 1 Erik Drawer unit

- 4 Vika Fintorp 70cm legs

- 2 Vika Curry Silver legs

Materials Needed:

- 1 12x16" plywood slab (3/4" thickness)

- 1 roll Black/Brown edge banding (bought from Home Depot for Mills Pride Cabinets)

- screws