Easy Work From Home Lap Desk

Hi everyone! At this point in time a lot of us are currently working at home, myself included. One thing I have wanted to get for a while is a lap desk, but for some reason or another I never got one. Now that I am working on my laptop a lot I really needed a way to be able to work in various places around the house, as well as keeping my laptop from overheating.

My solution is to make one with items I have around the house, and ones you might have too!

First, Find a container lid from anywhere around your house. It doesn't matter if your lid is a little beat up like the one we used because you can easily paint over it. Before deciding on a cover possibly test it out to make sure the size is to your liking.

Since our lid had a bit of discoloration on it we decided to paint it green in order to match our chosen fabric better and to give it a more finished look. To thoroughly paint the cover it took a fair amount of paint, we did four coats, so keep that in mind when choosing your paint color.

Then clear tape was added to the top of the lid, covering the whole top and sides. This was done for two reasons, one to protect the paint, which chips very easily, and second to give it a nice glossy look to the cover.

Then, obtain a mattress pad. I had one leftover from a bean bag chair I had made a few months ago, but other fillings could be used such as stuffing or shredded foam if desired.

Take your lid and place it on the mattress pad, then use a sharpie or some other permanent marker to trace the lid shape onto the mattress pad. Use scissors to cut out the shape you just traced. I cut out three of these shapes, but the number you need will depend on your personal preference on the height you would like your lap desk to be.

After cutting out your desired number of padding, hot glue the layers together. The hot glue tends to take a while to dry between these layers, so possibly use a book to press the top of the foam down and make sure it is sticking together.

You can use any type of fabric to act as the foam cover, just make sure it is something you consider comfortable of soft for on your lap. I used a large blanket scarf I had laying around and it worked perfectly!

Next, hot glue your fabric to the mattress pad. Make sure to be careful with the hot glue, I burned my hand several times throughout this process, so its something to definitely watch out for!

Last but not least, hot glue your cover to the bottom padding and fabric! It takes some patience, but the glue holds well and isn't very noticeable in the final product, so don't be afraid to add a lot of it to ensure the cover stays on tightly.

I really enjoyed making this DIY Lap Desk! I am currently using it right now to write this Instructable and I would definitely recommend making this if you are looking for a cheap and fairly easy to make lap desk!