DIY Parsons Desk

Learn to make a beautiful and functional desk for your home. We used MDF, 2x4s, and glossy white paint to make our DIY Parsons Desk.

We made this desk for our 15 year old’s new bedroom. If you’ve been following along you may have seen our room swap, plans for John’s room, and the cottage dresser I painted for his room.

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Luke and John built the desk using plans they found at Ana White online. You can see them here but they made a few modifications which I’ll share below.

A Parsons Desk offers minimalist style with storage. There’s actually hidden drawers in the apron of the desk. His previous desk was just too small now that he’s bigger. He saved up to buy a gaming computer and he also likes to spread out while working and drawing so he needed a bigger surface.

I snapped this photo before he headed to school. He LOVES his new desk:

I styled these photos for the blog, but the desk will actually NOT be against the wall and will have a monitor on it when he’s actually using it.

Okay, here’s what we did.

How to Build a DIY Parsons Desk

This desk was built using MDF for the top and 2×4’s for the rest of the desk. We also bought drawer runners. I’ll detail the paint and finish we used for the surface below.

We followed this plan for the desk, click here for the plans on Ana White.

There was a discrepancy that I wanted to note in the plans –

Some of the directions in the cut list are WRONG. The measurements in the images are right but some of them are just hard to read.

Here is the corrections I made (double check with the images):
– B) and C) are supposed to be cut @ 25 3/4″.
– I) 3 1×4 @ 17 1/4″.

Building this desk together was a great bonding experience for Luke and John.

Here you can see a step by step of progress.

In addition to the build plans we added a hidden shelf under the desk to hide all the cables. You can see what it looks like from below here:

How to Add Hidden Storage for Cables

Hidden storage, Luke did two of these, but it only really needs 1:

1. Cut a 15″ piece of 1×4

2. Optionally cut a corner out of it to wrap around the leg

3. Pre-drill holes from the back apron, and pre-drill countersink for the screws

4. Glue and attach with screws.

Here’s how the finished desk looks and we’re so happy with it:

How to Paint a DIY Parsons Desk

• Spot prime with Bin – the knots will bleed through if you don’t use this product.
• Prime – I primed with Benjamin Moore’s Oil Based Primer. I applied with a roller.
• Paint – I used Pure White by Annie Sloan for the color. I painted John’s dresser the same color and the two pieces of furniture are right next to each other in his room. I started by rolling the paint but it wasn’t as smooth a texture as I hoped for so I ended up using a flat brush.
• Sand with 300 grit sandpaper to make surface smooth
• Top coat with Annie Sloan’s Glossy Top Coat. I usually use clear wax but I wanted this to have ultra protection and wanted it to have a gloss finish. I applied two coats – one with a brush and another with a roller.
• For an ultra smooth finish you might want to spray the paint and the top coat. I’ve heard it’s good to thin out the paint when spraying. I didn’t have the right set up in the basement for this project so decided to use brush and roller.

Here’s the finished desk in it’s new home:

Our friends, Elyse and Lenny, just gave John this vintage camera and light meter. He loves anything vintage and camera related. He’s actually hoping to get them working again 😉

The sweet little clay pig is from Native in Scituate Harbor and believed to bring good luck.

The desk chair is from Laura Davidson Direct and the wallpaper is by Serena & Lily.

Shop the Look

We’re so glad John has a functional desk that can grow with him and it means even more that we built it together.

Be sure to pin for later if you’d like to try this project at home. Can’t wait to hear what you guys think of this new addition to John’s room. I’d also love to see the desks you build at home!