My mom recently just built a house. I'm so excited to start showing it off and all that we have planned for it! The first thing that was a must was a desk. The desk I had made for her before didn't fit through the doorway to her new office. It's a shame because I really loved that desk! (click here to check it out. It was made from a dresser!) :) But, that also meant I got to design a desk for her and her needs. She gave me the exact size she needed with everything so I got to work!
DIY desk with storage. Farmhouse desk tutorial. Desk tutorial with hidden cord storage. Desk organizing ideas.
 The total size of this desk is 30" deep, 54" wide and 29" tall. The middle section is 36" wide...perfect for a chair. These are the requirements she had, so I went forward from there!

Here's my cut list for this size of desk. It, of course, can be changed to suit your needs, longer, narrower, etc.
DIY desk with storage. Farmhouse desk tutorial. Desk tutorial with hidden cord storage. Desk organizing ideas.
6 -2x4 @ 28 1/4" (legs)
3 - 2x4@ 36" (top and bottom long rails)
5 - 2x4 @ 21" (side rails)
3 - 2x2 @ 21" (side shelf supports)
4 - 2x2 @13" (front shelf supports)
4 - 2x4 @ 13" (shelf rails)
3 pieces of 3/4" plywood at 24 1/2x13" (shelves)
1 piece of 3/4" plywood at 30x54" (top)

Step 1: Using a pocket hole jig, create 2 holes on each side rail. Holes should be on the same facing side. Secure 1 side rail to the top portion of a leg. I used wood glue and the interlocking screws in 1 1/2" length.
DIY desk with storage. Farmhouse desk tutorial. Desk tutorial with hidden cord storage. Desk organizing ideas.
 Step 2: Attached the 2nd leg to the top side rail.
DIY desk with storage. Farmhouse desk tutorial. Desk tutorial with hidden cord storage. Desk organizing ideas.
 Step 3: Now, 3" up from the bottom of the legs, place another side rail and secure into place on both legs. Do steps 1-3 again to create a second piece.
DIY desk with storage. Farmhouse desk tutorial. Desk tutorial with hidden cord storage. Desk organizing ideas.
 Step 4: Now do Steps 1-2 again. Don't do step 3 on this piece. Now, you should have 2 pieces with 2 side rails, and one with a top side rail only.
DIY desk with storage. Farmhouse desk tutorial. Desk tutorial with hidden cord storage. Desk organizing ideas.
 Step 5: Create pocket holes in each long rail. Secure the top and bottom long rails to section you created in step 4. The bottom rail should sit 3" up from the bottom of the leg and the top rails should be flush.
DIY desk with storage. Farmhouse desk tutorial. Desk tutorial with hidden cord storage. Desk organizing ideas.
 Step 6: Add one of the other sections you created in step 3. Make sure all pocket holes are facing inside. Secure this section to the long rails, both top and bottom making sure the bottom is once again 3" from the bottom of the leg.
DIY desk with storage. Farmhouse desk tutorial. Desk tutorial with hidden cord storage. Desk organizing ideas.
 Step 7: On the other section you created in step 3, add the top shelf rails (13") to top of the legs, making sure they are flush and secure in place with pocket hole screws and glue.
DIY desk with storage. Farmhouse desk tutorial. Desk tutorial with hidden cord storage. Desk organizing ideas.
 Step 8: Now add the bottom shelf rails 3" from the bottom on each of these legs. The front one I placed 1/2" in, the back is flush. Secure in place.
DIY desk with storage. Farmhouse desk tutorial. Desk tutorial with hidden cord storage. Desk organizing ideas.
 Step 9: Secure the 21" 2x2 long shelf rails into place on the side of the larger piece. The distance between these ones will be determined upon the size of the baskets you used. For the top piece, we decided to make a laptop shelf. So, this is super small and only a 2" distance from the top 2x4 side rail. From there, we made it about 7" for each shelf since our basket was 6" high. The bottom rails should sit 5" from the bottom to keep flush with the 2x4 front bottom shelf rail.
DIY desk with storage. Farmhouse desk tutorial. Desk tutorial with hidden cord storage. Desk organizing ideas.
 Step 10: add the shelf section to the larger section now. Connect all the shelf rails making sure to keep the top ones flush and the bottom sections 3" from the bottom of the legs.
DIY desk with storage. Farmhouse desk tutorial. Desk tutorial with hidden cord storage. Desk organizing ideas.
 Step 11: Using the same distances you did in Step 9, add the shorter shelf support rails (13") to the front and back. I inset these by 1/2" from the front, but kept them flush on the back.
DIY desk with storage. Farmhouse desk tutorial. Desk tutorial with hidden cord storage. Desk organizing ideas.

DIY desk with storage. Farmhouse desk tutorial. Desk tutorial with hidden cord storage. Desk organizing ideas.
 Step 12: Add the shelves to the inside of all the supports. I used 2" nails and my nail gun to secure them into place. You will want to make sure your measurements are correct before cutting these. Mine did vary by 1/4 per shelf because of the placement of the rails.
DIY desk with storage. Farmhouse desk tutorial. Desk tutorial with hidden cord storage. Desk organizing ideas.
 Step 13: This step was part of what my mom wanted in her desk. She wanted a shelf underneath the top that would hold a power strip. The cords on her desk would then feed through a hole on the top of the desk, down to this shelf. And then only a single cord will be showing, the one to the power strip. This is an optional piece and not mentioned above on the cut list. But this was a 1x8 board cut a 36" and placed on back top of the longer section.
DIY desk with storage. Farmhouse desk tutorial. Desk tutorial with hidden cord storage. Desk organizing ideas.
 Step 14: Next, I filled in all the holes, gaps and seams with wood putty. I sanded those to a smooth finish.  Then painted it with Sherwin Williams Pure White in semi-gloss.
DIY desk with storage. Farmhouse desk tutorial. Desk tutorial with hidden cord storage. Desk organizing ideas.
 Step 15: Not shown. I sanded the top plywood piece and then added wood filler along the sides to hide the character of the plywood. I then sanded that down to a smooth finish and stained the sides and the top with Classic Grey. I added 3 coats of polyacrylic to the top.

Step 16: I secured the top piece to the rest of the desk with wood glue and 1 1/2" nails.
DIY desk with storage. Farmhouse desk tutorial. Desk tutorial with hidden cord storage. Desk organizing ideas.
 I love how this desk turned out! It's simple yet works perfectly for what she needed. I can't wait to show you guys her total office makeover when we get it done!
DIY desk with storage. Farmhouse desk tutorial. Desk tutorial with hidden cord storage. Desk organizing ideas.

DIY desk with storage. Farmhouse desk tutorial. Desk tutorial with hidden cord storage. Desk organizing ideas.
 Here's the idea for the laptop shelf. She'll be using monitors that are connected to the laptop. So, the laptop needed to be close but out of the way. This is also just great for storage for anyone who just wants to use it as a place to keep their laptop when not in use.
DIY desk with storage. Farmhouse desk tutorial. Desk tutorial with hidden cord storage. Desk organizing ideas.
These baskets are from Target although I have found some similar at Home Goods.
DIY desk with storage. Farmhouse desk tutorial. Desk tutorial with hidden cord storage. Desk organizing ideas.
This was a fun piece to create and make adjustments to! I used the plans from Homemade Haven and tweaked them from there to suit my needs.

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DIY desk with storage. Farmhouse desk tutorial. Desk tutorial with hidden cord storage. Desk organizing ideas.

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Why yes, I do in fact have a kitchen. If you read my blog often or look at any of my home tours, pictures of my kitchen are always absent. Why? My kitchen is the one room in my house that I don't like and I can't change. Technically, I can change it, but it's the place that my husband has put his foot down. And truthfully, I am scared to heck to paint the cabinets. They are beautiful knotty alder cabinets, just not my taste. They never have been. I hated them since the day I moved in. My husband has loved them more than anything. So, yeah. The kitchen is not my favorite. 
Board and batten kitchen island makeover. How to update your kitchen island. DIY kitchen island update. Two toned kitchen cabinets. White and wood kitchen cabinet ideas. Knotty alder kitchen cabinets.
If you remember from my board and batten post (click here), I ended up having a realtor come in and tell me a few things I should update about my house. Also, I swung a few ideas past her to see if they were worth it or would ruin the value. One of the things was my kitchen. She immediately said paint the cabinets. Yep. But not white. No. Grey, charcoal grey. I questioned her considering my black counter tops and she said it would look fine. She's also an interior designer. So, I should trust her. But, it's once again not my taste. She told me to paint the island the color of my choosing and decide from there for the cabinets, which I was going to do already...just needed that push :) 

I had plans years ago on how to change my island. I had actually bought some molding for it way back in the day, just never did it. So, with the idea in my head, I finally went about doing it. And guess what? The paint didn't even touch the wood. Nope. I actually did this when my husband was working late one night so he wouldn't freak out on me :) You know, asking for forgiveness is always easier than asking for permission type thing. But, just in case he insisted on removing it, I made sure I didn't paint the wood. 
Board and batten kitchen island makeover. How to update your kitchen island. DIY kitchen island update. Two toned kitchen cabinets. White and wood kitchen cabinet ideas. Knotty alder kitchen cabinets.

So, why do I hate my kitchen so much? It seriously looked like a peach bomb blew up. My cabinets match my tile and at one point they all matched my walls. It doesn't get much light in here compared to other parts of my house, so it's dark and ...well, peachy :) But, peachy in a bad way, not a good happy way :) 

So, I decided to brighten it up. I started with the island to see how I liked it, and if that didn't scratch the itch, I'd be doing the cabinets....maybe :) So, here's how I took my island from drab to beautiful!

First, I took off all the existing molding. You can see from this picture that wood had been scratched pretty good and has seen better days. There was actually no molding on the bottom portion at all, which drove me nuts. It always felt incomplete.
Board and batten kitchen island makeover. How to update your kitchen island. DIY kitchen island update. Two toned kitchen cabinets. White and wood kitchen cabinet ideas. Knotty alder kitchen cabinets.
 Next, I cut out the mdf sheet. It already came painted in white from the molding aisle, which was great. No need to prime! :) I cut it the same size as the front of the island. I used one of the vertical molding pieces for height.
Board and batten kitchen island makeover. How to update your kitchen island. DIY kitchen island update. Two toned kitchen cabinets. White and wood kitchen cabinet ideas. Knotty alder kitchen cabinets.
 I then lined up a long piece of molding along the marks. This helped with giving me a good straight item to draw a line across. I cut the board using my Dremel Ultra Saw. If you have the dimensions you need, you can probably get this cut at the wood store.
Board and batten kitchen island makeover. How to update your kitchen island. DIY kitchen island update. Two toned kitchen cabinets. White and wood kitchen cabinet ideas. Knotty alder kitchen cabinets.
 My island has two outlets, so I needed to cut an opening for them. To get the location, I lined up a piece of paper on the existing island, and traced where the outlet was.
Board and batten kitchen island makeover. How to update your kitchen island. DIY kitchen island update. Two toned kitchen cabinets. White and wood kitchen cabinet ideas. Knotty alder kitchen cabinets.
 I then transferred this to my mdf board. I just poked the holes out in the corner to place little dots on the board...if that makes sense. I then connected the dots to create the outline. I did cut the rectangle a little bit longer than the trace to get the outlet to fit in it. I drilled a hole into the middle of the rectangle to start, and then finished cutting out the rectangle with my jigsaw.
Board and batten kitchen island makeover. How to update your kitchen island. DIY kitchen island update. Two toned kitchen cabinets. White and wood kitchen cabinet ideas. Knotty alder kitchen cabinets.
 Once all sides of the island were cut, I painted them with a smooth/cabinet roller and Behr's Alkyd Semi-Gloss Enamel in Swiss Coffee. I did two coats.
Board and batten kitchen island makeover. How to update your kitchen island. DIY kitchen island update. Two toned kitchen cabinets. White and wood kitchen cabinet ideas. Knotty alder kitchen cabinets.
 While waiting for the paint to dry, I used some outlet extenders to push out the outlet just a little bit since I would be placing the mdf board on it. If you need help with this, youtube it or ask an electrician. 
Board and batten kitchen island makeover. How to update your kitchen island. DIY kitchen island update. Two toned kitchen cabinets. White and wood kitchen cabinet ideas. Knotty alder kitchen cabinets.
 Now starts the horrible pictures. :) Once again, I did this at night while my husband was away, so some of these pictures aren't the best. Sorry!

I started by placing the side mdf boards first. I chose to do 1x4 boards along each corner and side. I secured these in with my brad nailer and 1 1/4" nails.
Board and batten kitchen island makeover. How to update your kitchen island. DIY kitchen island update. Two toned kitchen cabinets. White and wood kitchen cabinet ideas. Knotty alder kitchen cabinets.
 I then placed the larger front board on, making it fit around the outlets. I then secured more 1x4s to the sides. I made sure to overlap these 1x4s on top of the side ones so that the seam would be shown on the side, not the front.
Board and batten kitchen island makeover. How to update your kitchen island. DIY kitchen island update. Two toned kitchen cabinets. White and wood kitchen cabinet ideas. Knotty alder kitchen cabinets.
 I then placed a 1x3 along the bottom portions, secured it in.
Board and batten kitchen island makeover. How to update your kitchen island. DIY kitchen island update. Two toned kitchen cabinets. White and wood kitchen cabinet ideas. Knotty alder kitchen cabinets.
 Next, I secured in a 1x4 on top of that. This gave me that 'chunky' molding look when finished.
Board and batten kitchen island makeover. How to update your kitchen island. DIY kitchen island update. Two toned kitchen cabinets. White and wood kitchen cabinet ideas. Knotty alder kitchen cabinets.
 I ended up having to find a smaller piece of wood to fit above my outlets, which was against my original vision, but ended up working out. This board is about a 2" wide.
Board and batten kitchen island makeover. How to update your kitchen island. DIY kitchen island update. Two toned kitchen cabinets. White and wood kitchen cabinet ideas. Knotty alder kitchen cabinets.
 Once the bottom and top vertical pieces were in, I placed the very middle 1x3 horizontal piece, making sure it was level and straight.
Board and batten kitchen island makeover. How to update your kitchen island. DIY kitchen island update. Two toned kitchen cabinets. White and wood kitchen cabinet ideas. Knotty alder kitchen cabinets.
 Now for the fancy molding :) I cut the baseboards at a mitered edge along the front first. The shortest edge being the length of the front of the island. 
Board and batten kitchen island makeover. How to update your kitchen island. DIY kitchen island update. Two toned kitchen cabinets. White and wood kitchen cabinet ideas. Knotty alder kitchen cabinets.

Board and batten kitchen island makeover. How to update your kitchen island. DIY kitchen island update. Two toned kitchen cabinets. White and wood kitchen cabinet ideas. Knotty alder kitchen cabinets.
I then placed the side baseboards on. I kept one side mitered, and the side that would go along the back of the island flat. 
Board and batten kitchen island makeover. How to update your kitchen island. DIY kitchen island update. Two toned kitchen cabinets. White and wood kitchen cabinet ideas. Knotty alder kitchen cabinets.
 Here's a look at it before I painted the molding.
Board and batten kitchen island makeover. How to update your kitchen island. DIY kitchen island update. Two toned kitchen cabinets. White and wood kitchen cabinet ideas. Knotty alder kitchen cabinets.
 Next was sealing the seams and holes with some lightweight spackling compound. I placed this on with my fingers, and then wiped off the excess with a wet paper towel. Once that was dried and smooth, I did two coats of paint.
Board and batten kitchen island makeover. How to update your kitchen island. DIY kitchen island update. Two toned kitchen cabinets. White and wood kitchen cabinet ideas. Knotty alder kitchen cabinets.
 Here's how it sat for about a week. This was my original vision besides the chunkier molding on the top. I didn't mind it, but kept feeling like something was missing. 
Board and batten kitchen island makeover. How to update your kitchen island. DIY kitchen island update. Two toned kitchen cabinets. White and wood kitchen cabinet ideas. Knotty alder kitchen cabinets.
 I then laid some boards up to break up the big squares and loved it! So, I measured out the middle of each square and placed a new 1x3 board in the middle of each one. 
Board and batten kitchen island makeover. How to update your kitchen island. DIY kitchen island update. Two toned kitchen cabinets. White and wood kitchen cabinet ideas. Knotty alder kitchen cabinets.
Here's a look at the before:
Board and batten kitchen island makeover. How to update your kitchen island. DIY kitchen island update. Two toned kitchen cabinets. White and wood kitchen cabinet ideas. Knotty alder kitchen cabinets.

 I think a big problem with the before is that it just didn't match the rest of my house. It always felt like a kitchen in someone else's house. Now, I feel like it somewhat blends with the other rooms.
Board and batten kitchen island makeover. How to update your kitchen island. DIY kitchen island update. Two toned kitchen cabinets. White and wood kitchen cabinet ideas. Knotty alder kitchen cabinets.

Board and batten kitchen island makeover. How to update your kitchen island. DIY kitchen island update. Two toned kitchen cabinets. White and wood kitchen cabinet ideas. Knotty alder kitchen cabinets.

Board and batten kitchen island makeover. How to update your kitchen island. DIY kitchen island update. Two toned kitchen cabinets. White and wood kitchen cabinet ideas. Knotty alder kitchen cabinets.
 That being said, I'm not in a hurry to paint the cabinets. I'm not sure I would like them all white or not. :) Never thought I would say that. I think it's okay to have beautiful wood cabinets in an all-white cabinet world. I guess you can say, that my itch has been scratched with doing the island this way :)
Board and batten kitchen island makeover. How to update your kitchen island. DIY kitchen island update. Two toned kitchen cabinets. White and wood kitchen cabinet ideas. Knotty alder kitchen cabinets.
 As for the other side of the island? Yep, it still looks like this. I need to paint it, probably :) Here's a good angle too at what the molding looks like on this side too.
Board and batten kitchen island makeover. How to update your kitchen island. DIY kitchen island update. Two toned kitchen cabinets. White and wood kitchen cabinet ideas. Knotty alder kitchen cabinets.
 I have a couple more changes I'll be doing in here in the next few weeks that I think will make a big enough difference where I won't feel the need to paint all the cabinets. Can't wait to share!
Board and batten kitchen island makeover. How to update your kitchen island. DIY kitchen island update. Two toned kitchen cabinets. White and wood kitchen cabinet ideas. Knotty alder kitchen cabinets.
What are your opinions, should I paint the rest of the cabinets to match or leave as is?

Other board and batten tutorials throughout my house:


My bedroom:
DIY board and batten tutorials. Square board and batten. Board and batten in bedroom. Ideas for big walls Vaulted ceiling wall ideas. Board and batten tutorial

Or my bathroom:
DIY board and batten tutorials. How to install board and batten. Board and batten in bathroom. Ideas for big walls. Board and batten tutorial
Or this bathroom:
DIY board and batten tutorials. How to install board and batten. Board and batten in bathroom. Ideas for big walls. Board and batten tutorial
Or the nursery:
DIY board and batten tutorials. Board and batten in nursery. Ideas for big walls. Board and batten tutorial


Or my hallway:
DIY board and batten tutorials. Square board and batten. Board and batten in entryway. Ideas for big walls. Ideas for staircases. Board and batten tutorial
I just realized I may have too much board and batten throughout my house :) Or maybe I'm just a little obsessed with it. lol

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Board and batten kitchen island makeover. How to update your kitchen island. DIY kitchen island update. Two toned kitchen cabinets. White and wood kitchen cabinet ideas. Knotty alder kitchen cabinets.

Board and batten kitchen island makeover. How to update your kitchen island. DIY kitchen island update. Two toned kitchen cabinets. White and wood kitchen cabinet ideas. Knotty alder kitchen cabinets.

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