Finished Writing/Typing Table Retrofit

It's not much, but a friend wanted to replace the hodgepodge of shelves in an armoir with a slide-out keyboard tray, slide-out writing desk, and top shelf for a computer and monitor.

The existing one is shown here; bottom was a black melamine shelf while the top was some ply with cut 2x6 spray painted black.  Hey, the pocket doors can hide a lot of evil.

There was no definite profile on the existing armoir that I could replicate for the front of the drawers.  The doors had a 'curvy' profile so I made a curvy profile with a soft slope off the tray surface for comfort.

Thankfully, they wanted it black so I didn't have to match that finish.  I went with 3 light coats of shellac with TransTint black followed by 4 coats of General Finishes Polycrylic also with TransTint black.  The black is very deep, but shows the grain very nicely.

To do it again, I'd just dye it on raw wood with india ink as the TransTint black has a hint of violet.  It would also keep me from having to mix black into the finish.  Also, Polycrylic is very nice to work with.

To install it in the cabinet, I put pocket-screw holes in the outside sides as they would be completely hidden by the pocket doors.  I painted the holes with india ink to hide a bunch of white ovals :)

The C-12's eccentric chuck is a life-saver for getting in with near zero clearance.  Hope whomever ever has to remove it has one :)

The end result.  The two trays are full-extension self-closing 18" slides and are pretty stable.  Slides are hidden by putting them in a large rabbet on the side of the drawer and behind the tray front.  They are only visible when the tray is extended.

A simple project, but I'm not working on bigger stuff until the cool air arrives!! (last two days have been super nice... so I'm stuck in a house doing flooring! d'oh!)