Office ergonomics are important! I struggled with recurring shoulder pain and headaches for the past few years. I assumed my desk set up had something to do with that, but it became very clear to me that the height of my desk was a major contributor to my issues when I sat at Nathan’s adjustable height desk for a few weeks.
In my search for a new desk for my office I made sure to find something the right height for me, unfortunately changing the height of the desk left my monitors too low for my comfort, and I didn’t want to keep adding books to a stack to fix the height of my monitor. Initially, I bought a metal monitor stand, but after trying that stand for a few days I realized it was too tall for me. I searched online for a different stand that would meet the dimensions I wanted and kept finding ones that were really pretty, but much more expensive than I was comfortable with. Long story short, I asked Nathan to build a custom wood monitor stand that would be the right height and be wide enough to slide my keyboard and computer under. I wanted a stand that was simple with clean lines and the ability to store my computer and keyboard underneath were a huge bonus!
Below is a step by step on how to build your own custom monitor stand.
Materials Needed
1×2 lumber
1×8 lumber
Miter Saw (or hand saw)
Drill
Kreg Jig
Wood Glue
Wood Putty
Sand Paper (150 & 220 Grit) (optional: Orbital Sander)
Paint Brush
Primer
Paint of choice
The Process
Determine the desired dimensions: I wanted a stand that was about 3″ high x 18″ wide x about 7″-8″ deep. I wanted this stand to be wide enough to slide a keyboard under, and not too deep that it would get in the way of my laptop.
Measure your wood: Nathan was able reclaim some wood from our scrap wood collection to use for this project, but if buying new we recommend getting select rather than common board, for 2 reasons, first the amount of sanding required with select is less and second the edges on select boards are more square. We think the added price is worth the convenience, but this project could certainly be completed with common boards. Nathan used a 1×8 for the top surface and 1×2 board for the uprights.
Make your cuts: For this project all we needed was our miter saw to make 3 quick cuts – the 2 uprights were cut to 7.25 inches and the top piece was cut to 19.5 inches (+1.5″ to account for the 2 upright pieces). If you don’t have a miter saw a circular saw or hand saw can do the job just as well.
Attach your uprights to the surface board: Nathan attached the uprights using pocket holes and wood glue, this provides a very strong joint.
If you don’t have a jig to drill pocket holes this can be attached using nails from the surface board down into the upright pieces.
Fill pocket holes with wood filler: If you elected to nail the top surface in place you can skip this step. It takes quite a bit of filler to fill these holes and it will take hours for it dry enough to sand down, let these rest over night before sanding.
Fill jig holes with wood filler or speciality jig hole plugs.
Rough sand the wood surface: Rough sand with the 150 grit sand paper, especially on the top surface and any cut edges of the wood.
Wipe dust away and prime: Prime all surfaces except for the inside of the uprights which still had wood putty drying. Then let everything to dry overnight.
Lightly sand the primer: Use 220 grit sandpaper to lightly sand the primer to ensure a smooth finish. At this time also sand the wood putty to a smooth finish and prime the inside faces of the upright boards.
Wipe dust away and paint: We chose to paint the stand black with Benjamin Moore Black in an eggshell finish because we had the paint on hand. Normally we would use a semi-gloss for a project like this.
Inspect the paint, sand primer on inside of face boards, and do any paint touchup and a second coat of paint if needed.
All in all this project took 3 hours of work over the course of 2 days, there is a lot of time spent waiting for paint to dry, but now I have a custom monitor stand that is perfectly suited to me.
