Building a Custom Table/Desk for the Grand Design Reflection 337

I'm Bill. I'm Kelly. And this is our adventure. This is our adventures. Here we go. So what do you think about my custom built table? Oh wait, you may want to know how I did this. Let's just back up. So this is probably where you'd want to start, back at the beginning. Let's get started and show you how I did this project. Before I get started, need to get this old table out of the way. So let's unscrew it. I'm gonna put this over here for right now because I don't have anybody to help me carry it out. Be a little heavy. I probably need to unload those first because I'm gonna re- I just re-did these curtains, but I think I'm gonna do something different. I saw somebody else had done some taking this down and putting up some pretty wood and I want to do like some linen curtains, but I'm probably gonna take these off of this window for right now and I'm gonna do my new table because I don't think I want the curtains here. They're kind of useless and I just want this open. Now that I have this open, and I'm so excited because this is going to make this so much bigger, I'm going to do a 20 inch deep table that's going to run from that wall to here. So it's going to be 20 inches across. Then I'm going to have it drop down a little bit and I'm going to have another shelf because I work on my computer a lot here, so I will be able to put my computer up under that little shelf that's going to be up underneath here. Maybe some little baskets or something would be fit in there. You could put pins. This is going to be a lot extra storage and room. Also, because of the chairs, they don't have- I mean they have cup holders, but coffee cups don't fit in that really good. It just doesn't have an end table on this side. So what we're gonna- what I'm gonna do is I'm going to build a table that matches this here and it's going to be the bench height. So it'll be here and then you can put your cup on it, but if you need a bench, you'll be able to take it and turn it and move it around if you needed more seating. That's my plan, but as you know, if you RV at all, plans are to be broken. So I have a plan, but I may have to alter it partway through, but we'll just see how it goes. But the good thing is, is once I get this done, you'll know what problems I had or what I had to alter my plan and maybe it'll help you with your project. So let's go start cutting wood. So here is my plan that I have drawn out, like what I want it to look like from the end, from the front, and from the top, and it's got all my measurements on it. I took the top out to the camper and it fits perfect, so I don't need to cut it and all my dimensions should be correct. Now I'm going to go ahead and cut and start with my sides. I'm not going to show you cutting them out, but I will- once I'm done, I will make sure I measure and I can put better diagrams on them. These are diagrams that I can understand, probably not a normal person, but I know what I wanted. So once I cut everything out, I will put it together and then we will stain it and do the treatment that I think I want to do on it, and then I'll put it in the fifth wheel. But I'm going to start, I'm going to go ahead and cut all my pieces out and then bring them in and show you me putting them together. To keep from splitting your wood, I bought a drill and driver. What it is, it is a- that goes on your drill and it countersinks the screw heads and it drills a pilot hole so that it doesn't splinter your wood. Also, what is cool about this is once you countersink, so you don't have to keep changing out your bit, you let it go- oh wait, sorry- pop it up, it comes out, you flip it over, pop it back together, and there is your number two bit ready to go. Cool. This is going to be my top, so I want this two before to be flush with the top so that my top can sit on it and we can attach the top and it'll give support. Mine in from the ends. You'll see the screws, but that'll add to the characteristics of it, I think. So we've got to line this up. So it sinks it and it sinks in. Now, I'm just going to attach all those the same way. Also, I'm going to do one on each side, but I'm going to go ahead and do this side first and then come back and do the other side. So I have all the screws in the one side. I'm going to flip it over, level everything, and put the screws in the other side. So my boxes are together on some of my measurements. This is going to be a little smaller than I wanted, but it's still going to work for my computer because that's what I wanted it for. So now I got to do the hard part, the part that I don't understand. My husband, he built me a desk, and I'll insert a picture of what it looked like for my office, but I want to do crosses here. He did 2x4s on mine, and I liked it, but I wanted this to have more air. Like more air? More air? I wanted more air. I wanted to have more area. So, okay, 2x4s made it really narrow. I mean, like you couldn't see through it. So I've opted to do 2x2s. I'm going to cut my first 2x2 longer than what I need, and I'm going to mark it. Like I said, I don't know if this is going to work, but I don't know how to do the crosses, so this is how I, in my mind, am going to do them. What's probably going to happen is my husband's going to have to get home tonight and make my crosses for me, but until then, I'm going to go try to make me some crosses. So here is, in my mind, how I think I'm going to make this work. Let's see if I can get you to see this. I'm going to take my 2x2 that I cut, and I cut it 30 inches long, which I don't need that length, but I cut it that long so that I can, and then what I'm going to do is, in the middle of my 2x2, which is an inch and a half, which is only going to be three quarters of an inch, I'm going to make a little line, and I'm going to sand all this off later, so I'm still going to make a little line. That way, I know the middle. Maybe a couple of scrap 2x2, 2x4s that I had out there to help hold this up, and then I'm going to slide this in, and I'm going to put my lines that I made in my corners, and I'm going to take my pen and make sure that those lines, that's my center of my 2x2, I'm going to cut and mark. I'm going to mark it on this one, and I'm going to mark it on this one. Now, see where I marked them? I'm going to go cut on my marks and see if it fits. I cut it, and it fit the center of my 2x4. A 2x4 is only three and a half inches wide, and half of that is one and three quarters. Perfect. One side done, then I'm going to do the other the same way. Put my 2x4s back up under, slide this up under there, mark the middle of my three quarters, so I'm going to mark this, mark this, that. Now, I'm going to go ahead and cut those ends, then slide it in, and then mark where I need to cut the center off, and then that way they'll attach. So now that I slid that in there, and those pieces look really good and snug, I'm just going to mark there, mark it there, and then I'll just cut that piece in half, and then it should slide right in. Now that I have my pieces cut, I'm going to screw them in. It's probably going to be easier to nail than it is to screw, I think. I'm going to try nailing it and see. Yeah, much better. Don't look at all that over there. That's from when the camper was at the, uh, that's everything out of the camper from when it was at the shop. We had to take everything out, so, sorry. Got the legs done. I still got to cut this board because it's got to be flush, but I just added these two befores this way between the two legs, and now I'm going to add a two before on the back side just to keep the legs and make it a little more sturdy. I also, and I'll link it below, I got this cool thing that I'm putting in the top because I don't want the cords running around. I feel like I had something on me. This is a tabletop plug. I'll drill a three-inch hole in the countertop over here, and then I'll screw this on, and it's got two USBs and two plugs, and then I will just run it back there and plug it in, and that's what I was looking at with the way I bid these boards, but it'll end up going like right in here, and I think it'll work perfect. I don't know what day I'm gonna be able to get to finish it, but at least it's coming together. I'm so excited. My vision is coming together, and let's turn the lights on. Hello! I've changed clothes because it's three days later than when I started the video. Today I'm going to try to get this stained. I kind of have an idea of what I want it to stain so that it'll match the rest, but I'm not a hundred percent sure, so I'm gonna start mixing a gray and a walnut stain and see how that comes out, but first I gotta get a tarp down. Let me go get my stain, and I'm gonna stain everything, and then I'm gonna attach the top. I'm gonna drill the hole for my power. I'm gonna mix two stains, special walnut and classic gray, because I have kind of gray brown looking colors in here. It's not really gray, and they're not really brown. I want to match. I have two different foam brushes, one for the gray and one for the brown, because I don't want to mix them, so I'm going to take the gray and rub it on it. Now we're going to take the brown stain and go back in and go over that. Take my rag and wipe it off, and that is the color I want. Perfect. Now I gotta stain the whole thing. Originally, I thought that I was going to paint the bottom, but this stain is turning out. It is matching the floor perfect, so I'm going to keep doing this, and then we'll see how it looks. What I just slid in is this little shelf that's going to be right here. It's really small, and it's like, oh, why aren't you doing that? My computer, I measured it, and it will slide in here, so when I'm not using my computer, I can put it away up under here, and it's not sitting on top. That was my idea anyway, and also, I have decided I'm not going to paint the bottom. I'm just going to stain it all and leave it, because I think it turned out really good. I've got some screws that I'm going to need to secure this with, but it's going to turn out good. The thing that I'm going to do real quick on this top, this has a really sharp edge, and I don't want that rubbing, so I'm going to go run around with the sander real quick and just bevel that edge off. Now that it's all stained, it's time to get it all assembled. Let's go get my stuff. So what I have, I'm going to put the top on and this bottom piece. I'm going to do the top first, and then I'm going to add the bottom piece. They're little brackets like this. They hold the top down, so I'm going to put those on now. But first, I got to make sure my overhangs are the same all the way around. Well, let me rephrase that. On the back, I'm almost going to do it flush and have a little more overhang on the front, but I just got to make sure everything's the same. Y'all ready to watch my arm adjust, y'all? Easily done. So now, I think I'm going to recover the cushions because I've got the fabric that I have an ottoman in here, and I'm going to put that up. I think that's going to look good. Since these flip up, they'll be really easy. I'm just going to unscrew the hinges, cover it, and then screw it right back on. To fold a corner, the best way that I know how is I fold this in. I fold that in, and then you pull this over and then staple it. It's got plenty of room for two chairs. You could do three. I'm going to store the other two fold-up chairs up in the closet. I put a basket right here because if you own a 337, you know there's no place for shoes when you walk in. So, that's going to be like my little place for shoes, and then I've got these two chairs. I'm going to make or do something, a little table here. It's not going to be what I thought it was going to be. I thought I was going to have a little more room when I got it in here, but I don't. So, I'm going to build them a little table there, and that'll be it. I think it turned out great, and then it's got the little shelf for my computer to sit. I just slide it in there. Also, I know people have probably got some questions about how to open my window. You can get to it from underneath here. You can just reach in there and open it and close it. I hope you enjoyed this video. If you have any suggestions on any other videos that you would like to see, just let me know in the comments. Please like and subscribe our channel. We'll have more adventures. I just wanted to give you a little how-to video. I did a few more extra things. I added these curtains. The other curtains, I think, I had changed out the fabric, but I had left the little rods at the bottom, but I just wanted curtains to be usable, and those were not. I ordered, and I'll put a link below, it's a linen tarp, like you would a painter's tarp. Once you wash them and dry them, they make the prettiest linen. I've done them in my house. I've made a bed skirt out of them. They just turn out beautiful. If you live in a camper, because those curtains were not movable, then they were useless. The only time, like, if I didn't want people looking in, you have to pull down the shade. Well, then it makes it dark, and I'm not a dark person, so the curtains, the way that I've done them, I can pull them together. I still get light, but yet it blocks people from looking in. I'm excited. This is gonna work really well, and I've done all the curtains in here. To show you what I've done, I just took, because you can't re-hem these. This is really hard, and this is, like, a great hem. I took 24 inch wide tarps, and I just cut how long I needed them, and then I just sewed a pocket at the top, and I put a tension rod up here, and I pulled it all the way to the front, so it doesn't affect the the blind. It works fine, and it looks good. The only other thing that I did do that I realized the other curtains did is the other curtains kind of, if you know, they have the velcro, and it goes back so that when this is down, you can't see through the side. I took and stapled on all of them, the fabric back right here, so that way it covers it back to the wall. I love it.