Fitting a floating walnut desk: one day, by the clock

A floating desk has no legs, no frame underneath and nothing on show holding it up. It just comes off the wall. Getting that right is mostly about what you cannot see.

This one is for a small study in Highbury. Walnut, wall to wall under the window, with four drawers hidden in its thickness.

The day before

The walnut was cut and the four drawer boxes built the day before, outside the workshop, with tape on the edges to keep them clean until fitting.

Building the drawers on a flat bench means they come out square. On site it is then just a case of hanging them on their runners, not fighting a wall that might not be flat.

Fitting day

09:05. Empty room, new floor, sun coming in. Dust sheets down and the desk sitting in the hall.

09:46. A level line right across the room with the laser, and a batten fixed along it. The back of the desk sits on that batten, and the ends fix into the walls either side. Everything comes off this one line.

11:26. Top on, with walnut dividers underneath carrying the drawer runners. Once the drawer fronts are in, none of this shows.

11:52. Level on top, checked at both ends and in the middle. A desk this long will show any sag, so this is where the time goes. Then the last fixings, then the drawers.

13:50. Done. Floor hoovered, drawers in, photos taken.

No handles

The drawers have no handles at all. You pull them from underneath, so the front stays one clean run of walnut. With the drawers shut you would not know they were there.

Five hours on site, because the drawers were already built.

See every photo of this job.