In both 2023 and 2024 my July’s were ruined by sciatic episodes where I could not walk. So for July 2025 to be free of sciatica and back pain was a very welcome relief.
July had a trio of projects that used walnut. The first was a desktop for a standing desk that was to replace the existing well-used original top. I made the top from multiple staves of walnut of varying width and the edges were folded under to give the top some greater thickness and this also allowed the desk mechanism to be hidden underneath in the recess.
A stand was required for two monitors and would allow a laptop and keyboard to be parked underneath when not in use. I made two separate stands of different lengths so that maximum flexibility in monitor placement could be achieved. The stands were a simple design which allowed them to be parked next to each other if necessary to give one long stand and walnut pegs added a little interest to the feet. Both the desktop and the stands were finished with Osmo Polyx black tint. Note that the colour in these photos is very ‘brown’ and actually the surface looks much more like the colour of the trays (see below). The size of the desktop was approx 1900 x 800 x 450 mm.
My second project was to make five walnut hexagons. These were to be used as grazing platters – and a hexagon shape would allow multiple arrangements of the platters for decorative serving arrangements. Again, I used many staves for each hexagon of varying widths to give maximum ‘randomness’ and interest. These were finished with tung oil to give a robust water resistant finish. Each hexagon was 400 mm from edge to edge (or approx 460 mm from corner to corner).
The final project was a follow-up from the desk owner – he wanted two small desk tidy trays to match his new desktop. I routed a shallow recess into the walnut and then rounded the corners. Sizes were 360 x 200 mm and 200 x 100 mm.
