A Mid-Century Inspired Desk Organizer - Instructables

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A Mid-Century Inspired Desk Organizer

by Bevelish Creations

Today, I'll be showing you how I built this solid walnut desk organizer that has a bunch of storage options to help you declutter your desktop. Even if you don't need a desk organizer, the techniques covered in this build can be directly translated toward larger cabinet builds!

Tools

1/8" Radius Bowl & Tray Bit: (Affiliate)

1/4" Downcut Bit: (Affiliate)

There are several things that will be difficult to explain White Marker: (Affiliate)

with words and images, so be sure to check out the

Youtube video above!

Jointer Push Block: (Affiliate)

Materials

Microjig Gripper: (Affiliate)

Walnut Hardwood

Brusso L-37 Knife Hinge: (Affiliate)

Brusso 1/4" Ball Catch: (Affiliate)

Disclosure: All links above are Amazon affiliate links. There are no additional costs to the buyer. The small kickback I receive from qualifying purchases helps me to further invest into my channel and help to support my craft.



A Mid-Century Inspired Desk Organizer: Page 1

Step 1: Milling Blanks

For this project, I marked out all the pieces I'll need for the build on a piece of 8/4 walnut. I first crosscut the lumber down to their rough lengths, and then resawed them to get all the pieces for the case as well as the drawers. I generally mill the workpieces to their final dimensions right before I need them. In this case, I started with the top organizer tray.

A Mid-Century Inspired Desk Organizer: Page 2

Step 2: Organizer Tray Template

But before I start making the organizer tray, I first had to make the template for cutting the pockets using my router. I got the dimensions for the pockets by laying out the things I want to store in the tray (e.g. pens, post-it, etc...). I laid out the pockets on a piece of 1/2" MDF, then cut them out using a drill and my jigsaw.

Step 3: Cut Organizer Tray Pockets

After cutting the pockets out, I attached it to the workpiece with some double-sided tape and then took it over to my drill press to clear out the bulk of the material with a Forstner bit. This will help to reduce the load on the router bit later and will make the

routing process much safer. To finish cutting the pockets, I used a 1/8" radius bowl and tray bit to clear out the rest of the pockets, leaving the bottom surface flat, with a radius around the corners.

A Mid-Century Inspired Desk Organizer: Page 3

Step 4: Cut Organizer Tray to Size

After removing the template from the workpiece, I cut it to its final size on the table saw. Since I like to add angles to everything I make, I decided to add a downward slope to the entire top of the organizer. To make this cut on the table saw, I used my tenoning jig to help hold the workpiece. I had to swap the workpiece to the other side of the blade to complete the cut.

A Mid-Century Inspired Desk Organizer: Page 4

Step 5: Organizer Tray Bottom

Before working on the rest of the organizer, I had to edge glue some blanks together to create workpieces wide enough for what I'll need for the case. For the bottom support of the organizer tray, I laid out a big 1/4" deep dado for receiving both the organizer tray, as well as some stationery holders later. I made the cut using my dado stack, sneaking up to my lines until the tray could sit snug inside before gluing them

together.

After the glue has had time to cure, I cut the tray assembly down to size, leaving about 1/4" of material on either side. I also cut a notch on the front two corners to help cover up the rounded ends of the dados that this assembly will sit in later.

A Mid-Century Inspired Desk Organizer: Page 5

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