Credit: Courtesy of dinnercraft.com
Get your study area ready for September with a new desk made from an old door--they're inexpensive, easy to customize, and an ideal way to upcycle materials that might otherwise end up in a landfill. Whether you like a desk that's big enough to hold your books, computer, printer, lamp, paperweights, and pencil cup without crowding you or just like to have space enough to put your feet up, a door and some simple legs will do the trick.
We've covered this project before, with the 10-minute version from The Inspired Room that takes a chipped, peeling door from a North Carolina plantation home and two sawhorses and turns them into a chic addition to a contemporary living room. The photo here is from Dinnercraft, where someone repurposed a door from a Mexican beach house. Lifehacker highlights a more masculine version using dark wood, and shows off another office dweller who made his desk from a new Ikea cabinet door. (Buying new takes some of the green factor away, but if you have limited space then cabinet doors might be a better fit; use found materials for the legs.) If you can't find a solid door, read up on turning a screen door into a glass-covered desk, and if you're feeling especially handy, use these instructions for a top edge and lower shelf that dress up a plain door.
To suspend your door, try cleaned and painted sawhorses, legs from an old table, spare lumber, or even filing cabinets (bonus: those offer drawer space, too). Then customize with added drawers or shelves, and you're ready to hit the books again.
