Welcome back to DIY blurbs and another one of my epic searches for woodworking plans. Today I am looking for MDF desk plans, so if that is something you are looking for, hopefully I can come up with something worth your while 🙂 Although it is not always easy coming up with proper free woodworking plans!
MDF is hardwood composite with a medium density fiberboard core. It is more durable than plywood, but lighter than solid hardwood.
It’s cheaper and easier to work with MDF as it does not need to be sanded or finished. It can also be cut into any shape, so you don’t have to worry about not finding the right size of wood for your project like you would with solid wood or plywood. So if you want to make a budget but strong custom desk in your house, MDF can be a good choice!
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Internet Based MDF Desk Woodworking Plans
As always, my first step to finding free woodworking plans is to trawl the internet (usually thanks to everyone’s favorite Google search engine!!).
Today, this search didn’t bring out as many plans as I would have liked (like I said before, finding free plans can be tough!). But these are the best I could come up with.
My first ‘plan’ is from the Craft Your Happiness website. Plan is in inverted commas because this is more a set of step-by-step instructions rather than an actual full on plan. Thankfully, the steps are detailed with accompanying photos to make sure you know what is going on. This will leave you to work out the exact dimensions and shape of the different pieces that will make up this MDF desk. Although some may like this at it will mean you can sculpt it more to the shape of your room.
Click the image below to see the ‘plan’ for yourself.
The second plan I could find online is from the website This Minimal House. As with the first one, this is more of a detailed step by step guide rather than a traditional woodworking plan, but it is detailed enough with good images, so you can certainly have a good idea how to make a MDF desk from this. The desk being built here is a long and thin one, so if this is the type of desk you want it will be perfect. It would be quite simple to take these instructions and adapt the length of the desk to suit your particular space, so most people should find this helpful.
Click the image to view the plan for yourself.
Unfortunately, that’s your lot for online based plans. I have to say I was pretty disappointed with the number of actual woodworking plans online for a MDF desk, as I assumed this would be a popular topic. Instead, I got a lot of debate pieces of forum results discussing whether you should use MDF or plywood for a desk, as well as the benefits of chipboard for making a desk 🙂 If you are interested in that, all power to you, but I WANT PLANS!! 🙂
YouTube Based MDF Desk Woodworking Plans
As the internet text based search had gone so badly, I am relying on YouTube to come up trumps! The issue here is that these videos will almost always be a walkthrough step-by-step guide (like the articles detailed above), so I am loosing hope when it comes to finding any actual real woodworking plans for this MDF desk!!
The first video I found of any use is more of a motivational video than an actual woodworking plan, as it is a shorter five minute video that shows the steps someone went through to cut and build their MDF desk. There is little narration here or advice on what to think about when building your own MDF desk, so think of this as almost research that may help guide you in your project!
I am still holding out hope for something a little more detailed and plan like, so let’s get on with the second video! It starts out with a really helpful and well narrated multi part video series on YouTube, which helps explain every step in detail and gives you essential tips when building your own MDF desk.
This is an excellent start. Then I look in the description of this video and am blown away by what I find! A link to an ACTUAL WOODWORKING PLAN! lol. Finally, the holy grail has been achieved and I have managed to find an actual woodworking plan for a MDF desk. Whilst clicking this link I was half expecting it to be either a dead or a scammy link, but low and behold it did actually take me to a full and detailed plan of the desk build from the video! So YouTube really paid off in my search this time, which is funny as it is often the other way around. Plans are usually the realm of websites and woodworking blogs!
And this is a 6 page fully detailed woodworking plan, so if you follow it, you will have everything you need to make your MDF desk. See for yourself by clicking the image below.
Well, that’s about it for YouTube at the time of writing. There is just one more noteworthy video to mention. It has a good walkthrough of one mans process for building an MDF corner desk for his son. As this is the only mention if a corner desk so far, I thought it might be worth your time. Just be aware that it can be tricky to know what dimensions are being used here and you will need to guess the shape to cut the different pieces (as many commenters on this video have let the author know!). Hopefully he may see this and come out with an actual woodworking plan at some point 🙂 At the moment I can only find one actual plan, so it would be nice to get more!
So, as you can see, it can be tough to find free plans online for a lot of your woodworking projects. It took me around an hour of searching and sorting through the ‘junk’ online to actually get to anything worthwhile. As I am a busy guy, I like to buy bulk packs of woodworking plans so that I don’t have to always search around like this. I will link you out to my current favorite pack of woodworking plans, so that you can take a look and save time yourself. Click HERE to go see the very same pack I like to use. This will take you to their official website.