Monitor Stand Made From Wood Flooring

Recently I have been spending a lot more time in front of my computer editing videos and I noticed that after a long stint at the desk that I would feel some discomfort in my neck and upper back. I realized that this was most likely caused by the low position of my monitors. So I decided to build a monitor stand that would raise them to a much more comfortable height. I made this monitor stand out of solid wood mesquite flooring. This flooring was given to me, it was left over from a floor installation so I was able to make this for $0.

This is a very simple build, all straight cuts no fancy joinery, just glue and brad nails. You are basically just making a long narrow box and two small legs or feet.

Here is a video of the build.

Step 1:

The flooring has a tongue and groove on the edges I will be using this to help with gluing up panels for the top and bottom of the monitor stand. I did however remove the tongue on one of the boards, this side would be the face side of the box or the side that faces forward. The side that has the groove will face the back and wont' be seen so I left it.

Step 2:

The panel glue up is fairly straight forward, I just put glue on the tongue and clamped the pieces together. I did this for both panels. Set these aside and let the glue dry.

Step 3:

These are the two panels after the glue dried. Once the glue was dry I trimmed them to size, in my case the final length is 30 inches because I have two monitors on my desk.

Step 4:

In the next step I took some smaller pieces of flooring which would end up being the sides of the box. Since I had a lot of this flooring I ripped them down so that I had solid pieces. I did this because this wood flooring has grooves in the bottom (I'll show a picture of the bottom of the flooring later) which helps with installation and glue up when they are used as flooring. But this can be unsightly as part of the box. I wanted the face of the box to be as clean as possible and give the appearance of solid wood and not flooring. I also cut some strips that would be the feet of the box that elevate it off the desk top.

Step 5:

I trimmed all of these smaller pieces to length as well.

Step 6:

This is a quick mock up of what the finished piece is going to look like. Nothing is glued or nailed yet I am just checking the fit and making sure that I didn't screw up on any of the cuts.

Step 7:

Here I am measuring for the feet and marking reference lines so that I can glue and nail the pieces in place. I also marked the top of the panel so that I know where to nail. In these pictures you can see the grooves on the bottom of the boards that I mentioned earlier. Since the box is so narrow none of this will be visible once it is all assembled.

Step 8:

Once it was glued I flipped the bottom panel over and nailed it from the top. Then I sanded the surface. Wood flooring is already milled so there isn't a lot of sanding required. I used 220 grit to smooth out the surface.

Step 9:

Before applying a clear coat I made sure to tape off any area that would be glued later.

Step 10:

Now it was time to begin working on the top of the box. I glued and clamped on the sides of the box and then brad nailed them in place.

Step 11:

This is the top of the box and I needed to apply clear coat to what would become the inside of the box before attaching the bottom. This is necessary because the opening of the box is so narrow I would not have been able to coat it after I had assembled it. Here too I make sure to tape off any area that will be glued. The last picture shows the panel after the clear coat dried.

Step 12:

After the clear coat dries I remove the blue tape and check the fit one last time before final glue up.

Step 13:

I spread the glue and clamp the top and bottom panels together. I also brad nailed these together.

Step 14:

After the glue dried I sprayed the whole piece with two coats of clear to help protect it.

Step 15:

Here are the before and after pictures. The height is much more comfortable now. If you do plan to make this I would strongly suggest using some books at different heights first to see what works for you. I started at a lot higher position but soon realized it was way too high. Eventually I found the right height. Thank you for reading this and I hope you all find it helpful and it inspires you to make your own.