Keeping things clean when working from home. DIY under-desk shelf and cable management.
A few months ago, I was lucky and got an incredible deal on a motorised sit-stand desk. I was loving it, it was exactly what I had in the office at work and I was super happy.
However, the honeymoon period was short-lived. I’m something of a hoarder (I’m sure my partner would say I have a problem) and being a tech aficionado, one of the things I’ve collected way more of than needed, are cables.
So, I was given an ultimatum. “Clean up that mess.”
Materials
- 18mm Hardwood plywood
- 9mm MDF board
- Right angle brackets (mine were repurposed from an old bed)
- 12mmx90mm pine strips
- satinwood paint
- Picture hooks
- velcro ties
- Screws and glue (I used No More Nails)
- Drill and 3mm bit
- Mini trunking
Time taken
- 4 hours build
- 14 hours allowing paint to dry
- a potentially never-ending amount of time neatening cables
Method
Firstly I had to measure the size of the underside of the desk, the amount of room that my knees take up when the desk is lowered and I’m sat in front of it, as well as the distance between the legs and from my knee to the, built in, existing cable tray.
If this was a conventional desk, or a completely DIY one, I would have probably just opted for right angle brackets that screw directly to the underside. Whilst the desk is wonderful for comfort, it heavily restricts the options when it comes to customisation; with an extremely heavy steel frame, and hard laminated top, I really did not want to damage anything as-is.
As luck would have it (especially at times like these, where most shops are closed) I had kept hold of some brackets from a bed we had recently dismantled and scrapped (Hoarders, 1 — De-clutterers, 0). With a bit of play in terms of the way I would have to assemble things, I figured this would let me hang the shelf rather than have to bolt or screw anything into the desk, very handy if I was ever to sell it on.
With my knee-tray-leg measurements ready to hand, I set about cutting the scrap wood to size. If you’re obtaining materials especially for this project, then I highly recommend sticking to one kind. Bonus points to you if you get everything to match beautifully with your desk top. Another tip is that you should refrain from fixing into the edges of plywood with screws. You risk splitting the layers of the wood. Plus, it doesn’t quite look as immaculate, or might require some extra TLC when working on the finish. This is something I have learned the hard way in previous projects.
Fortunately, there are ways around this, drilling pilot holes for your screws, and picking the correct size can more than make up for this, and for this project, being as it’s almost entirely hidden from view, the finish wasn’t so important. You might also consider nails or pins instead of screws for a neater finish.
You can see some terrible diagrams above that I drew when planning this project. Essentially, there were 2 options, either a vertical shelf, painted to match the wall, with equipment bolted to the back of it, or the chosen version I have described this far.
To make things a little neater though, and to at least slightly disguise the cobbled-together wooden frame, everything once partially assembled, was given a couple of quick coats of Satinwood paint — liberally brushed on. Again, if finish is important to you, a proper spray-paint process with a wood primer and a number of coats of your chosen colour paint would give you a more even and professional finish.
Next, I assembled the pieces of the bracket in place underneath the desk, and double checked that I could get my legs under the desk comfortably (managing to get some of the still-tacky satin paint on my jeans in the process). Everything fitted, and sits extremely stably.
The last part of the build was the shelf, for this, I simply cut the MDF board to fit. I opted not to fix it in place as it allows easier access for changing out parts, and adding to and removing things without having to undo anything. It doesn’t slide around, even without the weight on it, but just make sure to get your measurements right.
Now, for the business this has all been for. Cable management is something that I think universally inspires dread, horror and boredom in people of all descriptions, technical or not. But, if it’s not done at the outset, it never is. Then I’d really be in trouble.
The desk comes with a cable tray. This is fine if you are one of those minimalist folks that somehow manage to survive with nothing more than a screen and a laptop. Suffice it to say, I am not. As a photographer and business owner, my life (and my desk) is full to bursting with peripherals of all descriptions; printers, hard drives, headphones, phones, charger. you-name-it. That’d before we even get to the Chromecast, FireTV, replete with HDMI switch so I can cram them all into a single HDMI port on my monitor.
When budgets are less tight, I’ll invest in a new screen. But for now, I’m content with this one. Ease of access, expandability and replaceability (oh yeah, and keeping things tidy) were the goals here.
Once assembled, I toyed with the layout of the kit on the mdf shelf, separate from the rest. Once happy with the layout you’re free to pin, staple, or stick your cable ties and pieces of equipment in place. I initially was going to use heavy duty velcro but as they’re sitting on a flat shelf, which was plenty stable enough, it turned out not to be needed.
I cut a few power cords to length and replaced the plug tops for the extension lead to remove excess cable that would otherwise hang down messily. Bolting an extension lead (or PDU) to the underside of the cable tray, and another to the side of my new shelf maximised accessibility tothe sockets and freed up space in the trays for large power packs and messy cables. If you don’t feel comfortable making that sort of change, just use the picture frame hooks and velcro ties to keep things neat. Velcro keeps it easy to make adjustments when you inevitably add or remove equipment in future. Zip-ties are also perfectly fine, just be careful around power cables if you need to cut them off.
Mini trunking was added to the vertical parts of the legs, using the heavy duty velcro, but remembering that I could only do half of the leg in this way, or risk breaking the sit-stand capabilities. This is an even better option for you folks with fixed or totally DIY desks, as you can hide trailing leads right down to the floor. This is something I’m going to have to tweak later, now that I’ve started obsessing over the neatness of this space. You might also want to attach some of this to the underside of the shelf, as a further measure for keeping cables out of sight. It certainly looks a lot neater than velcro ties.
So there it is. The (almost) finished article. Scroll through the images in the gallery at the top, Let us know what you think of the setup, and stop by for more DIY and tech tips, learning from the pitfalls I inevitably fall into, as I muddle through a bunch more projects during the lockdown.
