Taking Holy Orders: Making a Church Reception Desk

           After a local church in LaSalle had reached out to my school with an idea for a standing reception desk, myself and 3 other students were put to the task of bringing this design to life. 

        This was a fun, collaborative project, where I mostly worked on the inner cabinet that sits within the larger desk structure, but also helped out with the desk as well.

(Left) Aligning the 3 Boxes Before Screwing Together
(Right) Right Side POV Drawing of Middle Box

        We made the cabinet as 3 separate boxes that were screwed together after being individually assembled. I decided to use rebate joinery along the sides and bottom of each box for the back panel to slide into, much like you would see in kitchen cabinets, as well as dominoes between the sides and the top / bottom panels for added strength.

        In the video below, you can see the locking mechanism of the door hardware. We also added a magnetic catch, stainless steel handles, and finished the doors / top with 3 coats of lacquer. Things felt pretty snazzy when everything was done — perhaps there was divine inspiration guiding our work, as Jesus himself was a carpenter, after all.

         For the desk, my classmate Javad made quite a complex CNC file to create top and bottom slabs with grooves to fit plywood styles. They were oriented along a curve, where 2 sheets of bendable plywood were fit into a groove, creating the front of the desk and its hidden supports. I was quite impressed with how it all came together in the end, as the alignment and number of components to account for seemed quite the challenge to take on.

Exposed Structure of the Desk during Production

        We applied both a plastic laminate for the top, as well as a veneer on the outer layer of the bendable plywood using contact cement. All that's really left is for our teacher, Jim, to finish making some edge banding and to spray lacquer on the plywood components of the desk before the church comes to pick it up.

Reception Desk Construction Completed with Inner Cabinet Finished & Sitting in Place