---
title: 'How to Build a Budget Desk ($40)'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=zjfcVC20Tdc'
video_id: 'zjfcVC20Tdc'
date: 2026-07-01
duration_sec: 0
---

# How to Build a Budget Desk ($40)

> Source: [How to Build a Budget Desk ($40)](https://youtube.com/watch?v=zjfcVC20Tdc)

## Summary



## Transcript

I built a desk before and I called it the $50 desk. That was a bit of a challenge. And what if I told you I'm building another one? And this one is a little less than $40. The best part is you don't need a shop full of tools
and it's gonna be stylish. I'm gonna take this lumber and turn it into this. This entire desk is gonna be made up from dimension and lumber that you can find at your local home center store, two by fours, two by 12s, and a dowel stick.
This is a 12 foot piece of lumber which I had to store cut it in half so I can bring it home in a manageable size. What I need to do here is join these two pieces of lumber to make the top. Before ripping the edge, I wanted to see if there was a
chance that these would just go together. It didn't. The gap is just too large and I need to just rip the sides off and then join them.
I'm still able to see a gap so clearly I didn't do my best work. Instead of cutting off more, I'm gonna use a sander and try to make the adjustments. I'm still able to see a gap so clearly I didn't do my best work.
Instead of cutting off more, I'm gonna use a sander and try to make the adjustments.
It's not perfect, but I'll take it. If you have a table saw or a miter saw, don't punish yourself.
I'm only doing it this way so I can show it can be done with less tools. I made all of my straight cuts and left the miter ones for last. And now I have all of the pieces I'm gonna need for this build.
I was intended to join the top with dowels like I had before. But since I'm gonna be introducing the pocket hole jig, I thought it made sense to just show one jig. This is also an easier method and it would save you a little frustration when you're trying to line up the joint.
However, if you don't have a pocket hole jig, check out my video for the $50 on my channel and you'll see how I joined the top on that video. Now that I have all the holes drilled, I'm gonna apply glue
to one side of the joint. Before you apply your glue, try and have your next step planned out. This will prevent you from going into full blown panic mode
when you have glue dropping everywhere. As you can see, I placed a clamp right at the joint to keep the boards aligned. Then I placed a couple more clamps to keep the joint tight. The number I'm joining is an inch and a half
so I need to have two and a half inch screws. Now once I put the final screw in, I let this sit for an
hour to two, then I come back and remove all the squeezed out glue. Since I'm working with some rough lumber here, I'll use a scraper and remove the glue. You can also use a chisel or a great sandpaper to remove it.
When it comes to plugging the holes, you can skip this step and normally I would, if the holes were hidden. It's the bottom of the desk so it would be out of sight but not hidden.
With the top out of my way, I can use the work bench to drill the rest of the pocket holes.
Now I'm gonna work on the least fun parts of my projects, the sanding. As I'm doing that, I'll tell you about the sponsor of this video. Today video is sponsored by OR, a Wi-Fi digital picture frame that allow you to showcase all your favorite videos
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At this point, I have all the parts sanded down. Now I need to cut the ends off of the top to create the final length. And your eyes are not playing tricks on you. This thing is warp.
This was actually straight when I got it from the store. However, placing it in my garage and adjusting to the environment, this is the results. But it's nothing a little sandpaper can't fix. So how do we do that exactly?
First thing I'm going to mark the areas that I know I should focus on. Right here.
Hey, when you're trying to keep the costs down, sometimes you have to put the work in elsewhere. To round over the corners, you can use a router. In this case, I'm trying to limit the amount of tools I'm using.
As an alternative, I'm going to use a sander with 120 grit sandpaper and lightly round over the corners. When you put wood glue on the end grain, it often get absorbed. If you have the time, apply wood glue to the end grain,
let those sit and let the glue harden. At this point, most of the pores will be clogged. Now I'll put some fresh glue on it and then put the joint together. I'm showing two types of screws here, one for interior and one for exterior projects.
I happen to have a lot of exterior screws for what of a reason. I'm going to reserve some of the interior screws and utilize most of the exterior screws.
Adding these angled parts are just for aesthetics.
Noting that, I'll add some wood glue to it and hold them in place. I was tempting to use my nail gun, but I'll defer from that.
Wedging the parts using wood glue should be enough. To attach the brace, I clamped on a piece of wood at the back, then put the brace in place and now I'm going to screw it on.
After this, I'll add one more and the bottom will be complete.
Adding plugs are completely optional, but just remember it keeps things looking neat.
I was hoping to take this outside to spray on a fresh coat of paint, but the weather was having none of that. And I didn't feel like setting up to spray inside.
So, brushing it is. I have been using the same gallon of paint for over 5 years now. It's one way I can keep the cosline on this project.
I never got this end of the joint to close up as tight as I like. The underside of this looks much tighter. It's quite possible I leaned a saw or a sander. On the far end, the joint looked much tighter.
Since I got to keep the cosline, I'm going to make some wood filler. I'm going to take some of the captured sanding dust, then I'll add enough glue to make it pasty.
I'll then take a small amount of the stain and drop it inside of the mix. The go here is to try and tint it. I tried not to add too much so I didn't ruin the wood glue.
This looks good enough for me, so I'll fill the gaps and any little crack that I see. Once this is hardened, I'll then take a scraper and scrape off as much as possible before moving on to the sander.
I needed to pick a color for the top, and these were my three options. Typically when you're working with soft wood, you want to put on a pre-stained conditioner to eliminate any blotchiness.
I'm skipping that step to cut down on the amount of materials I'm using, but I also find that when I brush stain on and then wipe it off, I often get a pretty good result.
My favorite part about staining is removing it. The reveal is always satisfying.
I stained all the surface on the desk to completely seal it. Plugging the hole definitely made this a bit more discreet. If I didn't stain the wood filler, you would have likely seen a yellow line going down the joint of the desk. Once the glue hardened, it's not going to take the stain.
Now it's time to attach the base to the desk. Next thing is center it up and nudge it to its final position.
And once I'm done with that, I'll join the two parts with screws.
To me it doesn't matter what year it is, LEDs never get old. The LED strip is not included in the cost of the desk. It's completely optional, but I do think it enhance the look of the desk. I'll stretch it out and cut the strip at the proper length, then attach it to the desk.
Right below the LED strip, you can use that entire area to do all of your cable management. I already had this LED strip on hand, so no new cause there. Being that it's an older strip, I'm definitely going to add some hot glue on it to hold it
in place. If the desk is going to be up against the wall, absolutely I'm recommending LEDs.
I spent $24.52 on a 12-foot piece of lumber which was then cut in half and created into the top. There was an additional $13.52 spent on a 2x4 and $1.7 on a 3.8 dowel.
The dowel was intended to be the choice of a joinery, but I changed that during the build. This brought my total to $39.11 in lumber. All the materials I used to finish this project were things that I already had on hand.
Like the LED strip, the stain, the paint, all things I had on hand already. I built this desk with tools which I feel most DIYers should have. This is as far as I'm going to take you on this project, but keep in mind you can go so much further, like adding an outlet in the desk.
Headphone holders on the leg, all kinds of potential awaits you. I'm Glenn with DIY Creators, be sure to subscribe to the channel if you ain't already, and I'll catch you on the next one.