This rare and timeless silhouette is updated for contemporary use.
My wife was a freelance copy-editor when our youngest started kindergarten. She needed a desk to work from. A large desk of executive size would have been too big for our small Chicago apartment. However, this drop front, originally designed in Arts & Crafts by Charles Limbert, was perfect. It can accommodate all modern electronics.
Limbert’s original design is quite compact. Measuring 25 cm x 51 cm x 130 cm, its interior doesnt even fit a 33 cm laptop. It was a quick prototype that I used to scale it up to about 15%. The worktop height was the same so the functionality of the original. Quartersawn white oak is really beautiful but expensive, and its irregular grain can present unique design challenges. Charles Rennie Mackintosh is another Arts & Crafts master. I inspired me to dye the desk and stain it black. I used a /-thick plywood piece for the back, and a sleek leather pull to make the drop front.
Getting Started
1. The most important aspect of any project is the door. After gluing up carefully selected wood, joint one side, rip a parallel side and then crosscut to the exact width.
All lumber should be milled to the desired thickness. Then glue your pieces together for the drop front. Once the glue has dried, square the blank and then cut to size. Leave additional length on the blank for clamps, so placing the curve is simple. Rip a /-thin piece of wood on the tablesaw, which, when bent will help draw the curve. Measure a centerline on the door and then 5 cm off the bottom of the door. Place clamps to rest on the thin piece of wood, and bend the wood to the centerpoint. Draw a line, then cut the curve using a jigsaw or band saw. Use the offcut as a custom sanding block for the curve. I leave the front slightly oversize so I can fit it precisely during assembly.
2. Place two clamps near your marks. Push the 3/81 cm-thin, straight-grained piece to the marked center point. Trace the curve starting on the inside and working back toward the clamp. Be careful that the thin wood does not deflect.
Next, work on the sides. The most difficult parts are the sides. Although they are asymmetrical mirrors of one another, the parts will always face in or out depending on their figure, knot location, and other factors. Every time I made a cut or process, I matched or faced the parts toward each other, as it would be easy to cut two identical pieces versus mirrored pieces. Its important to remainmethodical in working these parts.
3. You can use a bandsaw or jigsaw to cut the curves you have drawn. Use a sharp knife and ensure that the line is not missed. Use the cutoff to smoothen the curve.
The production of the sides requires two router jigs and some accurate measuring. The square cutouts are placed by one jig, which you can see in image 10. I chose to cut it on a CNC router, however, you could carefully make it by hand or find a vendor to cut this on a CNC or laser cutter. With the square jig, I use a pattern bit after cutting out the bulk of the waste with a jigsaw. The other jig is for making the dadoes and stopped dadoes with a router.
4. I elected to use Dominos for this glue-up. Normally I skip Dominos or biscuits when gluing up panels, but by the time I jointed and planed the sides, my boards were already at final thickness and I didnt want to take any chances. I used 6mm Dominos to mark 5 spots.
Lay out the square cutouts, stack the sides on top of each other, and then bore out the corners with a drill. To minimize tear-out, I place the parts on a sacrificialboard and then I stay.
away from every corner. Next, clamp the board overhanging your workbench and connect the drill holes with cuts using a jigsaw. Be careful not to cut into the corners as they will remain curvy. Use the template to clean the rough holes. I made my template with / MDF, but it could be made out of any stable material laying around your shop.
5. Titebond III is my preferred glue because it gives me 15 minutes of free time. I only apply glue along the length of the piece. The glue is not put in the holes because Im not using them for joinery but for alignment. After 45 minutes, the glue is dry and I remove it.
Limbert used fairly standard units for laying out his many designs. In my adaptation of his desk, I tried to remain true to this logic. Mark out the position of the dadoes in width and length. Make sure to mark the angle of the desktop dado. Once the jig is clamped on top of the side, you should be able to see your waste marks. If not, youll know you have aligned it to the wrong side of the line.
6. For the next steps in shaping the side, you will need a blank that is precisely dimensioned. Rip both sides at once, and then crosscut to exact length.
Next, youll make the router jig. To assemble the jig, glue and screw together two right angle Ls. Once the glue has dried, you can take the Ls from the glue and sandwich one of your shelves between them. Place the pieces against one another and then clamp them together. Then, screw and glue these in place.
7. Draw all of the holes at once. Measure and align the bottoms of both the side pieces. Mark the waste clearly so that you can drill and cut the right place.
Each dado is / deep and / wide. You can make the depth in three passes using your router. To get to the shelf thickness, use a / wide pattern bit with top bearing and make clockwise passes. Before cutting the stopped dadoes, set the bit down close to the terminus of the dado and put a piece of painters tape on the jig as a reminder to not go too far. After cutting all of the dadoes, square the ends of the stopped dadoes with a chisel, including the angled one.
8. A 3/20 cm bit is the perfect size for drilling out the corners for rough cutting out the waste. This is a rough cut, so stay 1/20 cm from the lines. Take care to drill vertically as badly angled holes could drift and make for a poor hole. To prevent tear-out, place scrap under the side blank.
You will need to inset the back into the sides. To make the plywood back, you’ll need a /-wide rabbet. This can be done with a /rabbeting bit and your router. (The diameter of the rabbeting bit was larger than the factory baseplate on my router, so I made an auxiliary plate with a hole large enough for the bit.) To avoid tearout, make several passes until you reach the final depth of /.
9. To accommodate the plunging knife, the board is secured to the edge of the bench. Do not cut all the way into the corner, as the final shape has a radius.
To give the desk its unique shape, you will need to draw the radius and profile on one side. To draw the profile, follow the diagram to the right. For the radius at the top, draw a center point 5 cm from the angled front line, and another 5 cm from the top.
10. The template is the exact same width as the sides, and the holes are centered on the template, so alignment with the sides is simple. The template can be made with laser cutter, CNC or with scraps from the shop. Attach the template to the bench and side. To minimize tear-out, move the router slowly and carefully.
With a compass or trammel, draw a 5 cm radius circle connecting the tangent points with this curve. Cut along the pencil line with a jigsaw, sand smooth and then use this as a template for the second side, which you can rout with a straight-pattern bit.
Limbert Drop-Front Desk Cut List
No.
Material Dimensions (inches).
tw l
1 Door 4 x 16 /2 x 22 / White Oak
2 Sides 4×11 /2×56 / White Oak
1 Shelf A 4×11 /2×23 / White Oak
2 Shelves B and D 4 x 10 /2 x 23 / White Oak
1 Desk shelf C 4 x 10 /4 x 23 / White Oak
1 Shelf E 4x9x23x/White Oak
1 Top gallery, 4 x 3/2 x 23, White Oak
1 Toe Kick 4x3x23 White Oak
1 Back 4 x 23 /4 x 49 / Plywood
Next Steps
11. Make a jig for routing the shelf dadoes. The router uses a pattern bit with top bearing. To prevent the jig pressure from slipping, I placed two clamps on each side. For the stopped dadoes, measure and place a piece of tape to remind yourself to stop.
There are five shelves of differing depths in this desk, as well as the gallery and toe kick. All of them should be made from /-thick materials. All shelves should be cut to the correct length. The gallery and toe kick do not inset into dadoes. They butt against the sides, so theyll be / shorter than the shelves. After all of the cross members are cut to length, cut to width. The 6 angles on the desk shelf’s front should be cut. Once all the pieces have been cut to the right size, it’s time to sand them. Sand with #100 grit and #150 grit using an orbital sander, and finish by hand-sanding with the grain using #150 grit wrapped around a cork block, and then chamfer the edges.
12. Clean up the shelf dadoes with a sharp chisel. Keep in mind that the desk shelf dado ends at a 6 angle.
With a Festool Domino jointer, the gallery back and toe kick can be attached to the sides using floating mortise–and-tenon joints. Each side only needs one mortise, as each piece will have a glue line at the end. The gallery is flush with the back of the sides, but the toe kick is inset /. Mark the sides and cut the Domino mortises at the ends of the gallery back, toe kick and top. Next, make a /-offset cut on the fence and then cut the Domino mortise at the front of each side for the inset kick.
13. Install a 3/20 cm-rabbeting piece with bearing in a router. Then, rout a small rabbet on each side. Rabbeting bits can be larger than the hole on many factory base plates, which was the case with this tool. You can make an auxiliary base plate using plywood with a larger hole if this is the case.
To make the desk shelf flat when it opens, the mortises needed for the hinges are required. I chose a conventional black door hinge with rounded edge from Hillman, available at most home stores. Many hinges are available. Large door hinges can often have longer than 3 cm screws. This desk requires a / screw to ensure that the screw does not protrude past the shelf or door face. The hinges are completely hidden when the desk is closed, and the home center did not carry black screws in the size I needed, so I found some zinc (silver) screws the correct size and bought them for efficiencys sake.
14. Lay out the profile on one of the sides. Although the original seemed to have gentle curves, I simplified it so that the profile is straight. The top edge has a radius of 5 cm. To draw the radius, first draw 2 lines 5 cm away from the front line, and top edge. At the intersection, place a compass or short trammel and strike the curve.
Align the hinges 3 cm from the edge of the desk shelf. To accommodate the pin barrel of a hinge, the mortises have been stepped. Once you have marked the location squarely to the shelf’s angled edge, you can use a straight bit from a palm router and clean the mortise. Next, lower the bit to remove material to make room for the barrel. Next, you will need to clean the edges of your mortise with a chisel. Fine tune to get the perfect fit.
15. Once you have measured the hinge positions, place the hinge in its proper position. To roughly remove the waste, use a straight bit on a palm router. Adjust the depth to match the thickness of your hinge and then cut as close as you can to the line without going over. Fine-tune the fit with a chisel.
Now its time for a dry fit before the glue-up! It is difficult to fit all the parts due to their complexity and size. There were 10 dadoes and eight mortises, plus glue is added where the gallery and toe kick attach to the related shelf. Number all of the shelves and tune each one to fit its corresponding mortise.
16. You can either bring the part to your tool (band saw), or you can bring the tool to the part. A jigsaw is an excellent choice in this instance. You should cut within 1/8 inch of the line. Next, use sandpaper and a plane to clean it up. This will be your pattern for the second side.
Have a pal help apply glue (I used Titebond III for its longer open time) and align all of the parts at once. The glued-up desk, with all of the hinges was extremely heavy. Make sure that all shelves are properly seated by tilting the desk. Grab a mallet to drive the shelves home. Finally, measure from corner to corner and at each shelf with a square. Take a deep breath and then take another. Then, take a deep breath and chisel any rubbery glue around the corners. Let the glue dry overnight.
Finalization
17. The gallery only needs one Domino mortise on each side to align it to the back. The mortises were first cut on the gallery’s back. The same procedure is used for the toe kick.
Its easiest to finish the rest of the assembly before mounting the back and the drop front. To match our current furniture, this piece strays from the conventional Arts & Crafts colors of reds and browns and employs a more contemporary dark black. To achieve a rich and complex wood tone, the finish uses a multi-step process. The dye creates a rich basecoat that is very pigmented. The oil-based stain adds depth and richness. Finally, I apply a protective layer of polyurethane.
18. This glue-up is not for the faint of heart! It requires 10 clamps, and lots of drippy glue along dadoes. Take your time, rehearse your glue-up and check for square often.
I began with Trans Tint Black dye stained mixed with a suspension denatured alcohol. The dye is extremely intense, and its important to measure. I tried two different mixes; one with 50 drops of pigment per 227 grams of alcohol, and a second with 100 drops of pigment per 227 grams of alcohol. The latter was my preference. Use a 8 cm foambrush to apply the dye. Apply the dye quickly to the wood by using a 8 cm foam brush. Keep a clean edge so that the fine pigment does not pool or cause dark spots. Next, wipe the area with a damp cloth for a more balanced application. Wait a couple of hours before staining.
19. Working quickly, I flood the surface with the dye mixture. I follow with a wipe using a clean cloth. When working corners and intersections, wipe quickly as as its easy to get uneven pigment in this area.
I followed the dye with General Finishes Ebony gel stain. Use an inexpensive bristle brush to get the gel in all of the pores of the white oak and on the surface. You should work in small sections. Wipe off any excess gel stain as soon as it dries. When finishing the shelves, dont slather the gel into the corners, rather work each plane at a time. You can rub it off until it is dry and then burnish it with your clean cloth. The gel stain will not cure after this procedure, even though it is dried for about 24 hours.
20. After the alcohol/dye mixture has fully evaporated, I apply the Gel Stain to the parts. On large parts like the back I apply the gel quickly and wipe immediately.
Then, spray a polyurethane top coat. Spraying the polyurethane top coat is as easy as spraying the gel coat. You can avoid the risk of the pigment being dragged around by a bristle brush. Minwax semigloss polyurethane aerosol can is my preference for small projects like these. The fine mist is fast drying and the spray nozzle sprays in an aerosol can. This allows for a fan-like spraying, rather than a jet that seems to give a smooth finish. Sand with 220 grit alcohol between coats. I applied three coats.
Added Touches
21. To allow the desk’s full opening, my heavy-duty hinges required shims.
I used 1/41 cm veneer as a shim. After I traced, I cut the shim using a utility knife.
Once the cabinet has been glued up and is complete, you need to be careful with any pieces that are still in progress. Before mounting the hinges, however, make two shims for the hinges to accomodate the depth of the hinge barrels. You can trace the hinge onto a scrap piece of paper and then cut it out with a utility knife.
22. I carefully flip the desk over and place it on a flat surface. To predrill holes for screws, I use a self-centering Vixbit.
Turn the desk upside down and attach the hinges to their mortises. After ensuring the hinge is seated in its mortise, use a self-centering Vix bit to drive pilot holes. Next, fasten the hinge in place with aftermarket /-long #10 screws. To hold the shim in position, apply a length double-stick tape to your hinge. This is crucial for the next step.
23. Flip the hinge upside down. Attach a piece of double-stick tape to the hinge and fix the shim in place.
Lift the desk onto a workbench on its side (a friend is a backsaver here!). Set the door in its final place from the front. You should secure the door in its place. Fold the hinge flat from the back to the door using shim. Predrill the center holes with the Vix bit. Again, utilize aftermarket screws. After you have driven all the screws that hold the door in position, lift the desk up and take out the shims.
24. Lay the cabinet on its side and carefully place the door in its place. I use a collection of shims to get the door perfectly centered and sitting the same distance from the top. The door should be wedged firmly in place with the shims.
The original desk had a combination lock/handle. I didn’t find one that I liked, so securing the desk was not an important task in our apartment. I settled on a size between 8 and 255 grams. leather strap, looped back on itself.
25. With the back still off, from behind, gently fold the hinge with shim attached so it flattens against the bottom of the door. Again using a Vix bit, I carefully drill out the six holes. Next, I drive the aftermarket screws in place.
After cutting the strap to length and size, the edges were unfinished. I burnedished them with #320-grit paper and then painted the edges with satin latex paint. To make the holes, I used a leather punched. After trying a variety of options, I settled on two black, low profile screws with a small, hex drive. A pair of magnetic latches inside the desk keep the cabinet door in its place, although they are not required.
26. The desk’s dark black color is a good match for the leather. I drove the black bolts into pilot holes with a hex wrench. While the visible hardware is true to the original spirit, the leather adds a modern touch.
Attach the back last. Dry-fit the back to the assembled desk. Measure the location of the shelves and transfer to the back. Pre-drill and countersink the holes for attaching the back. Set the back in place and counterbore for the screws. Drive screws on all of the horizontal shelves to hold the back in place. Then set the desk upright and get to work!
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