Building a couples editing & gaming desk

The plan

Over Christmas 2021 we finally decided to update our home office, making the perfect places for relaxing, editing, and even some gaming. Building a couples editing & gaming desk was what we wanted but first a little backstory, both of us make videos for YouTube and share a spare bedroom as our home office. My videos are fully edited, researched and voice-over recorded here, while Jackie (Super Enthused) makes her videos out and about coming back to edit them here. While not a tiny room, it isn’t huge and we have tried many basic options for our room layout. Having the desks back to back, along one wall or on two walls.

After much back and forward on whether we wanted standing desks or not, we ultimately decided we would never stand, and it wouldn’t look very tidy having two desks at different heights next to each other.

The old set up..

Quite a few people have asked me questions so time for something a little different. I thought it would be interesting to document our journey, from our current set up to what we ended up with! Any questions please reach out to me.

Originally back in early 2020, we set up our office using our old desks in a back-to-back layout as seen here, you may have seen us sat in front of these walls when doing live streams back in the day.

We quickly found that it was tight on space, especially with the large Secret Lab Chairs, and was very messy looking. This was followed by removing everything and rearranging them next to each other along the wall.

While better than before, it still looked quite messy. We added drawers to the setup and tons and tons of stuff.

Early this year I built a custom editing PC, something I always had enjoyed doing. I have used both PC and Mac over the years and for the past 5 or so had used Laptops but it was finally time to make something more powerful. (If you would like another blog post on making that and its specs let me know).

While I edit my videos in Adobe Premiere Pro, Jackie uses Mac software for editing her videos so building her one wasn’t an option. (yet) 😉

What setup we wanted..

While many episodes were made with this setup, it was meant to be temporary and make way for something much better. Over a year in the making we finally decided it was time to make a desk fit to make Expedition episodes! How was unknown, but we would try and make something that would fit perfectly.

As some background, I have no experience making or building anything at all. I barely owned any tools so if I can figure it out anyone can. The early ideas began as using the popular “hack” of an IKEA countertop, mostly the Karlby, and placing them on two Alex Drawers.

Many people use this and it looks great! However the problem was a few things, the countertops were too big to fit next to each other to make one long desk and would need to be cut. As they are a veneer style wood cutting them would only place a sticker essentially along one edge.

The second thing I didn’t want to do was buy 3 new Alex Drawers when we had two similar-looking yet shorter drawers already, the IKEA drawers would also not be wide enough to accommodate two desktops so really I would require 4 of them, giving less space between each.

The wood desktop..

Instead, after some research, I found that butcher block countertops were essentially the same price and were all wood, while normally used for kitchen tops they are a great option for a desk as well. The Ikea Karlby Counter Top was $189.99, what we went with would be two Hardwood Reflections Birch Countertops from Home Depot at $199.99. While exactly the same length and thickness at 74 inches x 1.5 inches, it is slightly deeper at 25.2 inches than the Karlby which was a bonus, while being all wood inside. The only other thing was that the butcherblock was unfinished so I would need to finish it myself (and learn how to) as well as wait longer to use them.

We also had to pick up a third drawer which would form the base of the desk. These $89.99 cheap drawers from Amazon were fine already and are wider than the Ikea Alex drawers which i needed for the middle. I took the wheels off the two we already had and got to thinking how I could raise it to the correct height for the base, in the cheapest way possible. I considered using small legs, placing spacers on the top between the desk and the drawer which is a popular option but I didn’t love either. The answer would come in cheap 4×4 wood. Two 6 foot long 4×4 wood was the right length to fit under each of the 3 drawers, so after picking them up at Home Depot I placed them underneath and marked the length to cut.

Staining and sawing…

I purchased a cheap circular saw and hand sander from Walmart, and got to cutting it to the correct size and sanding it down upto 150 grit.

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The cuts were not perfect, but good enough for the bottom of the drawers. For the desk I had chosen to go with a Gel stain, as it was easier to apply and I read it was less likely to look uneven. We didn’t want the desk to be too dark so opted for a Light Oak finish. Before I cut and stained the desktops I would test out the stain on the base for the drawers. I used a pre stain wood conditioner (even though most places said it wasn’t needed for Gel Stains)

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I liked the color and even though it wouldn’t be exactly the same as the desktop, since it was a different wood it would be fine for what we needed. I then went ahead and cut 4 inches off each of the Butcher Block tops using the circular saw, using a 2×4 to keep the saw straight.

The workspace..

We needed both desks to be 70 inches to fill the wall completely. The desktop was placed on some 20 dollar Sawhorses from Home Depot. I originally thought I would have to do one at a time, due to the small Balcony space, with a tarp laid down we were working with outside covered space on the project but luckily both fit and sped up the multi day process completely.

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During the staining process I liked the look so much I wanted to add matching shelves above the desks. Originally was going to buy some kind of shelf but instead I purchased another smaller butcher block of the same kind. I cut the 4ft long block in half with the saw to create two matching shelves for the desks and used the same Gel stain.

I used cheap foam brushes to apply it, and rags to wipe it off right away. After the one coat of stain and waiting 24 hours, I added the first of three Satin Top Coats. I used Hardwood Reflections Satin Top Coat, but I only had purchased two pots, enough for the two desks.

Adding shelves to complete the look..

When i went to purchase it for the shelves it was sold out. Being impatient I then decided I would used an Oil based Polyurethane to finish the shelves. I had originally planned to do this for the desk tops but went with the same brand top coat instead. I’m glad I did, because I much prefer not only applying the Top Coat to the desks but the finished feel and look of the Gel Top Coat. I had never used a Polyurethane before and it was hard to apply in the small space, drippy, sticky and just didn’t love it.

During this process I attached the 4×4 to the bottom of the three drawers. To attach them I used a Gorilla Wood Blue and 4 wood screws which I drilled through the bottom of the desks into the wood. I really liked the way the drawers came out and it raised them to the correct height. It also allowed some space to hide long power cables under the desk.

After the first day and not great success using the Oil Based Polyurethane, I diluted it 50/50 with Mineral Spirits to create wiping poly which was much much easier to use on the shelves. It needs more coats, but I wish I had done that in the first place. I only read about it being an option after I had trouble with the first coat however. After 4 days and 3 coats of Top Coat, sanding with 220 grit sandpaper each time after fully drying the desk tops, shelves and drawers, they were ready to be put into place. I used 4 heavy Duty Home Depot Brackets, as the wood was very heavy it started to take shape.

Desktops assemble..

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I had a few goals with the set up. To have as little cables on show as possible, along with them being tidy and to have it have alot of color for late nights editing and writing. I placed the desk exactly 2 inches from the wall to get a nice backlighting from a Philips Hue Lightstrip with two extensions. In the past i had used cheaper light strips from Amazon but had recently been converting over to Philips Hue and have found them much more reliable and easier to control.

Cable management..

For the cable management I purchased two cable raceways from StarTech on Amazon. After spray painting them white, I screwed these 6 foot raceways under each desk and attached a power strip not only to the bottom of the desk but another behind each drawer on the left and right. Shorter reach power would go directly to the ones under the desk while longer would go through the raceway to behind the shelves.

In the past I had used double sided tape to attach things to desks but I wanted something more permanent that would never fall down.

The majority of the lighting, ethernet and controls are behind my drawer on the right, some running all along the desk to the far side. For monitor arms i considered wall mounting them but would be unable to hide the cables. For the huge Samsung G9 49 inch Ultrawide i went for the Ergotron HX with Heavy Pivot. It is super expensive, infact costing more than one single desk alone but i really wanted to easily raise it up and down and have it at the perfect height. For the smaller MSI monitor i used the Ergotron LX. Still expensive but I wanted them to somewhat match.

Adding support..

I had gone this deep into making it look similar I wasn’t going to stop now! I did ask if Jackie wanted a bigger monitor but 34 inch was large enough! Due to the desks being deeper than the drawers i also attached legs from our previous desks to the back behind them to support it from the back.

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The only things left to do was put everything on the desks we needed, set the monitors up and add some fun to the shelves! Oh and of course put our Communicore Epcot poster between. Some finishing things to make the desk tidier and easier to use where I had originally planned to rest the desktops on the drawers with non slip pads as they were so heavy, making them easily moveable.

The issue was that my computer was so heavy it would lift the middle where they joined up and it would be much higher than the other side. To fix this i added one plate to pull the desktops together behind the drawers next to the legs. I also in the end attached the middle drawers to each desktop by drilling 4 screws through the top of the drawer into the desktop.

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Adding the technology..

Adding a Thunderbolt 3 Dock to the Macbook so it could all remain inplace but all it took was unplugging one wire to pack it up and take it on a trip or move to another room. Also added two Belkin 2 in 1 wireless chargers to keep both our phones charged easily

I set up my Microphone, which when not in use slots behind the PC to remain out of sight. It is connected to a Rode Caster Pro on my desk, which is then connected to my speakers, the PreSonos Eris 3.5 and the headset under the desk. I also have a wire from the power behind the pc to easily charge hanging headphones such as my Razer Blackshark Pro.

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The lights..

Along with the Hue light strip behind the desk, each monitor has Hue Play Bars attached to the back of them. 3 behind the Samsung and 2 the MSI.

Creating in both drawers a charging draw for Mice, Camera Batteries and Controllers.

The completed set up..

And lastly the only pictures left to show are the final desk set up for us both! Most of the stuff i use and have here we have acquired over a long time. None of it is needed to make YouTube videos and many videos were made using just a Blue Yeti Microphone, some even on the floor in Airbnb’s when travelling. In fact I made my Ghost Town in the Sky video sat on the floor in an Airbnb in Toronto. When I was looking for ideas for a desk setup that might work for us, I found it extremely hard to find nice looking couples setups, so I hope something in this post may help you on your journey to finding an incredible space for yourself!

It has taken a long long time to get a setup, equipment and space that works for us! The desks were much more affordable than buying a nice desk anywhere and overall it was really fun to try something new, create a productive space that works for us both. I am really happy with how everything turned out, and would suggest if you were looking for a Karlby Desk style setup to create your own using butcher block, IF you have the time, space and resources to do so. It will be a while until I take on a new project like this but bringing together my love for computers and technology, learning something new and Theme Parks, I think I created a place that will be perfect for us both making videos in the future!

If you have any further questions make sure you reach out and ask me!

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