Thank you for your comments Johan.

This piece must be 8 or 9 years old now and is due a bit of attention, as you say, because of the mopping problem. It shouldn't take too much sorting out as the finish is Danish oil.

There was an interesting brief for this desk. It was made for a local charity who work with young adults with learning difficulties, and was designed to enable a "client" or "student" to work alongside the receptionist. Because of the concentration difficulties these youngsters tend to have, one side had to be built up high to act as a screen preventing them watching people walking along the nearby road. And yet, the 2 level desk had to be open and welcoming as well as wheelchair accessible.......and they wanted something a little unusual. It is my only project to date in beech, chosen to match the floor.

It has worked really well for them, and gets lots of attention and interest.....but no-one has asked me to make another!! 

Mike 

Mike

It is the open and welcoming feel in this clever design that prompted me to comment on it. Now that the brief has been explained I must say you realy got that spot-on. I am a retired dentist, so I appreciate the importance that the design of a receptiondesk can have to both customers and the people who work behind it.

Johan

Yabba-dabba-do!!

Seriously though, is it all solid beech, Mike? I'm thinking you might have used veneered stuff for the top and maybe the sides (behind the front "panels").

Olly,

The countertops (and the main one is huge), are solid beech. I'm fairly sure it is 1-1/2" thick. The curved panel behind the sculpted pieces, and the one supporting the raised counter, are both beech faced ply.

Fitting the latter was, I remember, the biggest "moment" in the whole construction, because it meant routing a groove in the countertop, and another in the underside of the raised counter. Whilst I obviously had a template and a follower, this only restrains the routing in one direction. It would have been perfectly possibe to have slipped with the router and carved a mess into the desk-top. Luckily, it went smoothly.

The curved ply under the raised counter is structural (ie there is no frame supporting the top counter). 

Mike