IC International Concepts, Writing Desk With Drawer, Solid Real Wood, Sturdy Parawood, Dimensions 19.41"W x 15"D x 2.36"H, Home Office/Study, Paint/Stain Ready, Unfinished

I have now made more than a fozen items from International Concepts, including chairs, tables, and desks like this (this model, I have built twice.) First, I am convinced this is a fantastic company. Unlike soft pine furniture, this is a good solid-feeling hardwood. As I read reviews, I hear people saying “oh, pieces did not fit together” — I believe they are wrong. In building chairs, I often found that you have to look VERY carefully at each piece, how it curves, wheher there is a slight angle where it fits together with ither pirces etc., and if you get it wrong, you eill run into problems. But anyone who does it slowly and carefully will absolutely be able to figure it out. This table, is much, much easier to assemble than the chairs — all you do is attach four legs and you are done. The table top plus drawer all comes pre-assembled and in one piece. Say, 15 minutes if you are slow and careful. What will take longer, is the finish. I like to do 2 coats on the entire table, using say an oil based polyurethane, say semigloss. Then, I do two more coats, just on the top, oil based glossy polyurethane. It dries beautifully smooth, a perfect table top. Note, it comes so nicely sanded I never felt the need to sand, except once or twice in all the dozen items I’ve made so far. I have used these items for a couple of years so far, they hold up really well, really solid, not like Ikea-style put-together pieces. These pieces of furniture look like atufr my kids and grandkids will use. Solid wood. All solid wood. No plywood that I can see at all. They take paint very well — I painted and then polyurethaned chairs, note polyurethane can add a warmer yellow tint. Kitchen chairs take a lot of beatings. The only issue, if I have any, is that the table tops are assembled from long pieces, a little like butcher block but wider strips, and adjacent strips will take stain very differently than each other. So, if you stain and then poly the surfaces, expect a somewhat variegated look, and also lots of “dots” where the stain is taken up more strongly. BTW, I include the photo so you can see what the table surface looks like if you stain it. These surfaces were so smooth I did not feel a need to sand, even. If you paint it, the surface is perfect (like maple, I would say, you will not see any knots) but with a stain you can see the pieces as they are glued together. Perfect writing table surface. I used a Minwax Pre-Stain, then Minwax #233 English Chestnut stain, letting it sit for about 10 minutes before wiping up excess, then after it dried I used Minwax polyurethane, oil based — semigloss on the legs and skirt and drawer, two coats. Glossy on the table top, four coats. Really, 2 coats would probably be enough, but 4 thin coats will really last. 3-4 hours between coats. As I said above, the actual assembly of the table is very fast, maybe 20 minutes in all, and quite simple; just look closely at the instructions to see the order of washer-splitwasher-nut, and tighten it with the included little wrench. If you use a hex nut ratcheting wrench, be careful not to overtighten. Enjoy!

I was pleasant surprised by the quality of this desk for such a low price. Installation of the legs was easy, requiring only 2 bolts per leg. The desk was unfinished but had been sanded and was smooth. A person could simply leave the desk unfinished; however, we decided to stain the desk instead. Here is how I finished the desk and a few photos are attached of the final product. 1. Lightly sanded the entire desk with 120 grit sandpaper followed by 220 grit sandpaper. I then used my mini shop vac to vacuum up most of the dust. I then wiped the whole desk down with a tack cloth to pick up any small particles. 2. I then used Minwax 61500 Pre Stain Wood Conditioner, 1 Quart and put a nice coat of prestain over the entire desk. I waited at least 15 minutes for it to dry. I am not sure if the prestain is needed, but I decided to do it anyway. 3. I then applied the stain. I used Minwax 70012 1 Quart Wood Finish Interior Wood Stain, Dark Walnut . I applied a liberal coating starting with the legs and working my way around the sides before making my way to the top. My wife was running the timer and started wiping off the excess stain after 5 minutes. Each piece of wood had stain on it for ~5 minutes. 4. I let the desk dry overnight and then applied Minwax 63010 Fast Drying Polyurethane Clear Satin Finish, Quart . I applied an even coat with a 2" foam brush on the sides/legs and a 3-4" foam brush for the top. Youtube videos said to use a bristle brush, but I just couldn't get enough product on the top with a bristle brush. 5. I had to wait at least 24 hours for the polyurethane to dry fully. 6. I then lightly sanded the entire desk using 400 grit sandpaper. I removed excess dust by then wiping down the table using a rag that had some mineral spirits on it (could have probably also used a tack cloth). 7. I then applied a second coat of polyurethane to the entire desk and let it completely dry again. 8. I then sanded and applied a third coat of polyurethane to the top only. 9. I replaced the knob with a different one from a local hardware store.

Great Table. Very sturdy; well designed, built, and packaged. Very easy to assemble.The top is a butcher block style, meaning its made up of many small pieces of wood (about 3" x 8" or so) glued together. This makes for a very interesting looking tabletop. But it is very well crafted and smooth and flat. Interestingly, the legs and the sides and the drawer front seem to be single pieces of the wood; not lots of pieces glued together. If you're going to stain it, be aware that the wood is a very hard and dense material, and doesn't take the stain as well as the oak or pine that you see on the color chips at the paint store. It takes the stain OK, but the end result is lighter in color than what you would expect. It ends up a little blotchy, but I suppose some would say that it is part of the charm of the wood pattern. I used Rustoleum stain at first, but I think it was a bad batch, and it didn't dry correctly. So I sanded it (the top) down to bare wood and re-stained it with Minwax wood stain and then Minwax polyurethane varnish. After it dried for a couple of days I polished the top with Johnson's Paste Wax. The end result is quite beautiful. All in all, a great purchase.

I'm a grad student in medicine - I needed a quality space to study when I am home that will accommodate my big books, my notes, and my laptop. This is the perfect desk. You won't find anything of this fine a quality for the price anywhere! It is raw wood with absolutely no finish on it. The wood is so beautiful, I may just finish it with a clear polyurethane or a wax, and the most fabulous part is...you could pull it out of the box and finish it. No prepping or sanding necessary! If you are like me, you want the most value for your money. While you will find desks in or near this price range, anything that is finished will be covered in a cheap wood veneer that is easily scuffed and scratched. I wanted a solid wood that will last and that could take some abuse (I have small children)TLC look as good as new again - only solid wood will give you that kind of performance. It arrived in a very timely fashion without any damage at all. My husband said it was very easy to assemble and it only took him about 20 minutes to bolt the legs to the table top, by himself. It comes with everything you need. If you are or have a student in your home or if you need a modest, but comfortable work/crafting space - I think this table would serve very well. It is by far one of my favorite purchases from Amazon ever, I am very happy with it.

All wood but soft. Not well protected at the corners during shipment. A sizable chip was knocked off during shipment. Suggest adding some bulk to the padding at the 4 corners. I didn’t want to carry it to UPS to return, so I repaired the chip (last 2 photos). It is sturdy, and price point is affordable. Assembly was easy. Will buy again.

First off this is a totally awesome desk. My shipments arrived early via FedEx I had no damage and all the hardware was there. The desk is the perfect size for me. I wanted room to work on my computer & also enough space so I can use my massive text-books & still hand write in another. The drawer is shallow but that is fine. What surprised me the most was what a solid piece of furniture this is. It is NOT rickety, it does NOT shake or move once it is put together. It was EASY to put together. I attached the legs in under 20 minutes. I will keep this desk for the rest of my life it is perfect just the way it is. Smooth the wood is really smooth. I wanted to give peeps a good look at the grain of the wood in natural sunlight. Wonderful value. I have been looking for a sturdy piece of furniture like this for a couple of years and I could not find anything like this in my price range.

This is a beautiful, solid wood desk. Customers who don't enjoy assembling furniture shouldn't be afraid to buy this product. The manufacturer assembled it almost fully, but they couldn't ship it with the legs attached, for obvious reasons. The customer must attach the legs and screw in the knob on the drawer. All other components, including the drawer, are otherwise fully assembled and attached. Assembly is really quick and easy. Just remove the plastic protectors from the bolts on the legs by screwing them off. Then, fit the legs in place (this step is trivially easy), add the nuts and washers, and tighten with a wrench (provided). The only advice I would add is to follow the basic carpentry practices described in the directions: The larger, flat washer always goes directly against the material (in this case, the wood), with the slightly beveled (more cosmetic) side facing out. The small lock washer goes on top of the flat washer and against the bolt. The small wrench that's provided is more than sufficient to tighten the bolts securely. Before using the wrench, assemble all the desk legs and tighten all nuts by hand to ensure proper alignment, then tighten them securely with the wrench.

I bought this desk because I couldn't find anything with the finish I wanted for under $300. I have never done anything "crafty" so I think this project came out pretty good! Also, it is SOLD wood and pretty heavy- which is great. Here's what I did: 1 - Sanded the top surface 2 - Stained the top with Early American Minwax wood stain, waited about 12 hours then did another coat of the Early American stain. I wanted it a LITTLE darker so after a few more hours I did a third coat of Dark Walnut Minwax stain. 3 - Painted the legs with Valspro Chalky Paint in Antique white (I wanted to use Annie Sloan old white, but the only place that sells it was sold out and I didn't feel like waiting for it to come in so I tried this, I think it came out fine!) --- then i waited about 12 hours after painting the legs then did a touch-up coat of the chalky paint 4 - After the legs were good and dry, I sanded the corners and edges to give it a distressed look --- NOTE - I wish I had stained the ENTIRE table prior to painting it... When I distressed it the color of the wood was lighter than the table top. This was fixed in the next step. 5 - Applied a coat of the Valspro clear wax (suggested to use with the chalky paint) then used the Valspro Antique wax to give it that darker distressed look - I did not apply the dark wax EVERYWHERE, I just applied it to the distressed edges and random parts to give it the look I wanted (can't really mess this part up) 6 - After at least 24 hours of letting everything dry, I applied a thin coat of oil based polyurethane (clear, satin finish)... waited 3.5 hours, lightly sanded, then applied another coat of the polyurethane... Then I was DONE! So writing all of this it sounds like a LOT of work. It really wasn't and I'd totally do it again. Probably took a total of 1.5 hours combine on my part to get it done. For the price, it is worth it!