DIY Double Desk IKEA Alex Desk Hack

In this post I am sharing how we built our DIY double desk using the IKEA Alex drawers. This IKEA Alex desk hack is such an easy way to create your own double desk!

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To build your double desk, you will need 3 “legs” and a countertop. I recommend using the IKEA Alex drawers as the desk legs because they offer so much storage space! There are several versions of the IKEA Alex drawers, but we used the 5 drawer unit and two file cabinets. The file cabinets have 3 drawers and one large file cabinet. The 5 drawer unit has two 10 cm deep drawers at the top and the bottom 3 drawers are 15 cm deep.

We chose to put two file cabinets on the ends of our desk because we keep our family files in one and my husband’s business files in the other. I love that the file drawer has extra space to put other items behind your hanging files such as notebooks, etc. In the center of our double desk we used the Ikea Alex 5 drawer unit to store our typical office supplies such as pens, scissors, paper, envelopes, stamps, etc. To keep your Ikea Alex drawers organized, I highly recommend using storage bins inside of the drawers to keep things separated and in place. I bought these super cheap storage bins in all different sizes to use inside of our drawers. To keep these in place so they don’t slide around when opening and closing your drawers, you can secure them using this adhesive that doesn’t damage furniture.

We also purchased our butcher block countertop from IKEA. It is 98 inches long and extremely heavy. You can just set this right on top of your Alex drawers. We never actually attached our countertop to the drawers and it stays in place just fine. If you have little kids I would definitely make sure to attach it to your drawers in case it gets tipped over by accident. Like I said, it is EXTREMELY heavy! Also, If you get a butcher block countertop, make sure you seal it! We made the mistake of not doing this and it has water marks from using cups without coasters.

The total cost of our DIY double desk using the Ikea Alex drawers and countertop was around $530. I feel like this is a really fair price for a quality double desk that is actually stylish and has tons of storage space.

Since our desk is in our living room, I wanted desk chairs that were aesthetically pleasing but also comfortable. I cannot recommend these chairs enough! They are actually very cushioning and the shape of the seat and back is just overall very comfortable. They have held up really well for almost 3 years now!

The size of this desk fits perfectly behind our couch, which is perfect for our lifestyle! We use it as a sofa table to sit drinks and snacks on while we’re hanging out in the living room and we eat dinner on it almost every night when we want to watch TV. It’s also our dog’s favorite place to take a nap! I think this double desk would make a great craft table for little kids too!

I hope these details on our DIY double desk were helpful if you are looking an IKEA Alex desk hack! Feel free to reach out to me with any questions. Thanks for reading!

Xo, Ciara