Creating a Knotty Pine Desk

Where ever you may live or what ever you do as your major occupation. You will definitely need furniture, although it may not necessarily be a knotty pine desk but what so ever type it is, it is still furniture. We sit on a chair, behind a desk, we eat dinner at the dinning table, at the office, and we put our files and folders in cabinet, and so on.

The use of furniture in our day to day life can not be over emphasized. There are various types and styles of furniture. But we are going to focus on only one.

If you have ever strolled with your dog to the woods or even hiked a mountain trail, you would have come across trees, both big and small, their branches, sticks, logs, as well as various species of plants. This is a typical scene where I harvest stretchers, table legs and supporting braces for my knotty pine desk creation.

To create this kind of furniture, I walk into the forest, well armed with my measuring tape, specific dimensions, hand saw, pocket knife and of course vivid imagination! Around me, specifically by my right hand side is this funny shaped maple tree, looking at my left side I see this 4 inch thick pine trees all uniquely placed in a spot. They look quite young in great shapes.

I envisage cutting down all the 8 trees at the same time but I soon changed my mind considering the fact that taking such action would amount to killing the trees' root system. So I go for just 4. As I am doing this, I am as well pruning their branches to remove the thin covering.

I then gather them all and take them to the wood workshop to be disembarked upon with a knife and leave to dry for three weeks in a warm climate that is dry. The top of the desk is bought from the lumberyard. While working at the wood workshop, I mill the pine roughly with my thickness planner and jointer, and then glue the pine desk top boards together. T-nuts and hanger bolts are the hardware I use for the joinery process.

I do this by inserting the hanger bolt into the legs that are dry and cut to the specific height. The final step is to fix the screws in same level to the legs in order to avoid uneven floor.

Pine is classified as softwood sourced from evergreen tree. This makes it pliable. It is easily created and has a low maintenance demand. Adding the knotty finish, it comes out well in desk and bedroom furniture. People who are particular about the uniformity in their knotty pine desk finishing, can find pieces they desire and this comes in already painted form.

While a pine desk may come, not so expensive, it should in all wisdom be handled with care because it could easily get scratched or dented. Having a well built knotty pine desk in your office or wherever affords a cozy ambience to the room it is placed.

It produces a natural pine aroma. For the environmentally aware, you can renew your pine desk furniture when you are tired of it as it is renewable and it's also classified as a carbon neutral product

Kamsy Williams is a furniture enthusiast. She helps office owners in choosing the right furniture.For more information, visit her website
www.furniturerail.com