This writing desk is one of my favorite builds. Made from cherry, with spalted maple for the side panels and drawer pulls. The drawer pulls are held in place with walnut posts for a little accent. If you are interested in the build process, here is a little build video.
How to Build a Writing Desk: My Approach to Joinery and Design
I’m in the middle of building a writing desk, and I wanted to share my process for tackling the legs and joinery. If you’re planning a similar project, here’s how I approach it—and a few tips that’ll save you some headaches along the way.
Step 1: Mill the Legs and Plan Your Joinery
First things first: I milled the legs and cut them to length. Once they were square and dimensioned, I laid out all the joinery and drew in the curve I wanted for the legs.
Here’s a crucial tip: cut all your joinery before cutting any curves. I can’t stress this enough. When everything’s still square, you have a flat reference face to work from, which makes layout and cutting so much easier. Plus, try clamping a curved piece versus a square block—you’ll quickly see why I do it this way.
The curved shape of the legs went perfectly in the home of one of my Boulder, Colorado custom furniture clients.
Step 2: Cut the Tenons (My Hybrid Approach)
For the tenon shoulders, I rough out most of the waste on the table saw. It’s fast and gets you close. But here’s where my method might differ from others: I always fine-tune the fit at the bench with hand tools.
Why? Because if even one small thing is off at the table saw—or if your stretcher is slightly out of square—those shoulders won’t be perfectly even when you cut all four sides on the saw. It’s just the reality of working with wood and machines.
Instead, I use a hand saw to cut away the top and bottom shoulders, then clean everything up with a chisel. I find this method much more accurate and gives me total control over the final fit.
For the tenon thickness, I cut them just a hair fat on the table saw, then sneak up on the perfect fit using a shoulder plane. I know some woodworkers who set up their machines with feeler gauges, trying to nail that perfect fit every single time. And hey, more power to them. But bump one setting and everything goes sideways.
Besides, there’s a Zen quality to working with hand tools that I genuinely enjoy. Taking those final shavings, feeling the tenon slide into the mortise with just the right amount of resistance—that’s the good stuff.
Step 3: Build the Framework and Add the Panels
Once I had the basic framework of the desk assembled, I measured out for the side panels and book-matched them. I used the same curve template as the legs to keep everything visually cohesive.
But then I decided the curve needed to be a bit more dramatic, so I used my benchtop sander to steepen it up. Don’t be afraid to adjust your design as you go—sometimes you don’t really see what you want until the piece starts coming together. (I didn’t capture this part on video, unfortunately.)
Step 4: Make Custom Drawer Pulls
For the drawer pulls, I always make my own. This is one of my favorite parts of any build because it adds a personal touch you simply can’t get from store-bought hardware. When someone sits down at this desk and opens that drawer, they’re interacting with something I shaped specifically for this piece.
Final Thoughts
Building a writing desk this way—mixing machine work with hand tool finishing—gives you the best of both worlds. You get efficiency where you need it, and precision and personal touch where it matters most.
If you’re building your own desk, I hope these tips help. And remember: there’s no single “right” way to do this. Find the methods that work for you and make you enjoy the process. That’s what it’s all about.
I’m the owner of Benham Design Concepts, a mixed media art studio where I design and build custom furniture and other works of art using wood, glass, stone, and various metals.
In this blog, I talk about the art I create, my journey, and the things I learn along the way.