L-shaped or corner desk
Two desktops joined at a corner, with a shared leg. Build it as two desks, then marry them.
Not what you bought? Try Four-leg desk or table · Electric standing desk
What you need
In the box already: Allen key · Corner joining plate or bracket · Leg bolts and wood screws · Leveling feet · Cable grommets
Before you open anything
- Decide now whether the long side goes left or right. Most L-desks are reversible, but changing your mind after assembly means undoing the whole corner.
- Measure the corner of your room. Walls are rarely square, and you want to know before you build.
- Build it in the room where it will live. An assembled L-desk does not go through a door.
- Clear enough floor to lay both tops upside down side by side.
Please don't skip these
- Never lift an assembled L-desk by one of its two tops. The corner joint is the weak point and it will flex.
- Do not load a monitor arm onto the corner until everything is fully tightened.
The whole thing, step by step
10 steps-
Decide handedness and lay both tops out
Put both tops upside down on the cardboard in the L shape you want, with the long side where you want it. Look at it for a moment before committing.
- Both tops face-down, in the L shape
- Long side left or right — decide now
- Check the cable notches end up at the back of both tops
Watch out. Reversing an L-desk later means undoing the corner plate and every leg. Thirty seconds of thinking saves an hour. -
Build the long section first, loose
Treat the long top as a normal desk. Attach its legs and crossbar with every screw started but nothing tightened.
- Leg plates on, all screws started
- Crossbar in, finger-tight
- Short screws into the top only
Tip. Compare screw lengths against the thickness of the top before driving any. This is where tops get punctured. -
Build the short return the same way
Same again for the shorter top. Note that the return usually has one fewer leg, because it shares one with the long side at the corner.
- Legs on, all loose
- Leave the corner end bare for now
- Keep both sections on the floor
Watch out. Do not fit a leg at the corner end of the return if the manual shows a shared leg. You will have one leg too many and a lump in the middle. -
Join the corner with the plate
Slide the two tops together and fit the corner joining plate or bracket underneath. Start all its screws loosely so the corner can still move.
- Butt the two tops together with no gap
- Plate across the join, underneath
- Every screw started, nothing tight
Tip. Press the two tops together firmly while starting the screws. Any gap you leave now becomes a permanent step in the surface.Watch out. The joining plate is what carries the corner. If your kit has two, fit both. -
Square the corner at ninety degrees
Measure out the same distance along each top from the corner, then measure between those two marks. For a true right angle at three and four feet, that diagonal is five feet.
- Mark three feet along one top from the inside corner
- Mark four feet along the other
- Adjust until the distance between the marks is exactly five feet
Tip. This is the old three-four-five trick and it works at any scale — thirty, forty and fifty centimetres does the same job.Watch out. A corner that is a few degrees out means the desk only touches one wall and rocks on its shared leg. -
Tighten in sequence from the corner outward
Tighten the corner plate first, then work outward along both tops, then the crossbars. Second lap afterwards.
- Corner plate first
- Then the legs nearest the corner, working outward
- Crossbars last, then a second full lap
Tip. Working outward from the corner keeps the ninety degrees you just set. Working inward pushes it out again. -
Flip it with help
Two people, lifting from the tops at the two far ends, not from the corner. Set it down on all legs at once.
- Lift from the far ends of both tops
- Keep the corner supported
- All legs down together
Watch out. An L-desk lifted by the corner flexes exactly where it is weakest. Lift from the ends. -
Level it against the real floor
L-desks have more legs than a flat floor can satisfy. Press every corner, find the ones that lift, and adjust those feet until nothing rocks.
- Press every corner and the middle of the corner section
- Adjust the feet on legs that lift
- Lay a level across the corner join both ways
Tip. The shared corner leg is the one that matters most. Get that one bearing weight properly and the rest follows. -
Push it into the room corner and check the gap
Slide it into position. If there is a gap at one wall, that is your room, not your desk. Leave the gap rather than forcing the desk out of square.
- Push into the room corner
- Look at the gap along both walls
- Leave a gap rather than twisting the desk to close it
Tip. Rooms are rarely square. A squared desk with a small wall gap is far better than a twisted desk pressed flat. -
Grommets, cables, and load it up
Press the cable grommets into their holes, mount the power strip underneath, and route cables before any monitors go on.
- Grommets pressed into the cut-outs
- Power strip screwed or velcroed to the underside
- Cables through the grommets with slack
Tip. Put the heaviest items — monitors, a PC tower — over the legs rather than mid-span. An L-desk's weakest point is the unsupported middle of the long side.
If something has gone wrong
There is a step where the two tops meet
The corner plate was tightened with a gap or at different heights. Loosen the plate, press both tops down flat onto a level surface, hold them flush, and retighten from the center outward.
The desk only touches one wall
Either the desk corner is not square — use the three-four-five check — or your room corner is not square, which is very common. If the desk is square, leave the gap.
The corner rocks
The shared corner leg is not bearing weight. Adjust its leveling foot down until it does, then recheck the other legs.
I built it the wrong way round
On most reversible desks, undo the corner plate and the legs on one section, swap the tops, and rebuild. Annoying but no damage done. Check for asymmetric cable notches first.
The long side sags in the middle
Unsupported span. Move heavy items over the legs, or add a center leg — many manufacturers sell one, and a simple adjustable furniture leg from a hardware store also works.
Words you will see in the manual
- corner plate
- The bracket under an L-desk that joins its two tops. Tighten this before the legs and work outward from it.
- three four five
- A way to check a right angle without a square: measure 3 along one side, 4 along the other, and the diagonal between those marks should be exactly 5. Works in any unit.
- grommet
- The plastic ring that lines a cable hole in a desktop.
- square
- Describes a frame whose corners are true right angles. You check it by measuring both diagonals: if the two numbers match, it is square.
- leveling foot
- A threaded foot you turn in or out to stop furniture rocking on an uneven floor.