Why not get a piece of plywood and put some kind of high gloss finish on it? Or use 2 colors of stain to make a pattern on the plywood and then put the finish on it.

How about a slab door. They are not expensive.

Yup... slab door -- my thoughts too.

Plywood and put formica on it -- wears like iron and cleans easily even if you get paint or glue on it. I had a formica topped table as our regular table for years and loved it. It made it through every kid craft and my crafts too and came out looking as good as new for decades. It had a generic beige top that went with all decor. You need a router to get the edges, or you can hire that done -- I'd just call any carpenter or cabinet shop to ask for help if you need it. Shouldn't be expensive. If you're going to tip it you might want to glue a small lip on the bottom so pencils don't roll off.

A slab door is not expensive and you can faux paint to look like leather.

How about plywood and then get some naugahyde (sp?) and wrap it with, and use furniture tacks to dress up the edges.

Faux marble is fun to do:
{{!gwi}}
{{!gwi}}

You could have some fun with some decoupage work, too.

I'm afraid a door might be to big and plywood to flimzy. But, I'm wondering if a cabinet door might work for you. Those are basically finished flat surfaces and some even have nice molded edges. Get one that hasn't had the holes drilled yet with a rather plain top. Then stencil just the top to give it a finished look. I saw something similar to that in a Scottsdale, AZ upper-scale store and can't get it out of my mind. As soon as I find a desk for my kitchen cubby I plan to do just that.
The stencil I like is a peacock from Jeff Raum. It's linked at about 1/2 way down the page.

Here is a link that might be useful: Peacock

A slab door will cost more than the $50 you want to spend, as will a heavy piece of glass.

I would think about using MDF. It will have one side that is finish grade for a nice look. Decoupage fun stuff on it or paint a harlequin or other pattern on it, and then seal with a few coats of poly. There is a piece of 4'x8' MDF, 3/4 inch thick, in our Menard's home store ad today for less than $20.

Or get plywood, and put on a remnant piece of smooth vinyl flooring or vinyl tiles. Add some wood trim around the edges to hide the plywood.

If you think 3/4" plywood flexes too much then screw two of them together. If you get a solid core door then no issues there either and a solid core you could cut to size.

If you have a habitat for humanity or a building material re-cycle place in your area you can likely find a solid core door for less than your budget.

3/4" plywood isn't too flimsey. I have a drafting table in my "office." I couldn't find a vintage oak one (REALLY wanted it) so I bought a metal base and used 3/4" plywood as the top. It's only supported in four points but plenty sturdy. I was too cheap to pay whatever it was plus shipping for the melamine top basically. It's nowhere near too flimsy.

Since I use mine for actual drafting, I have a drawing board cover on it. I'm linking below. This is the BEST surface for doing just about anything on it and it cleans up really easily with soft scrub (I get a lot of graphite on it). When I do any kind of cutting I put my cutting board on top, but for any kind of hand drawing it's a great surface. I don't know how hip it looks but it looks "correct" on a drafting table.

Here is a link that might be useful: borco drawing board cover

You wouldn't need to use a solid core door. My sewing table is a hollow core luan door that has poly based stain on it. It is wayyyyy sturdy enough for my machines. We even added drawers to it w/ a kit.

A hollow core door runs less than $20. You can get several different widths and if they are too long, they can be cut shorter as long as you are willing to fill in the opened end. This can be done w/ a scrap piece of wood or foam. Then just cover that end w/ a strip of the luan from the piece you cut off.

What about using plywood and then covering it in that faux stainless steel contact paper?

Thanks for all the suggestions. I just got back from a "scoping" trip to Home Depot. I did not see any solid core doors, but the hollow core ones I don't think would work, since I'd need to cut it down. I looked at the plywood and I guess something like that could work, but I didn't get anything yet. They also had particle board with a melamine coating for $20-something a sheet, but I'd need to do something with the edges. The plexiglass at HD was over $70 and kind of flimsy.

At a local salvage store I stopped by on the way home, they had a piece of tabletop glass slightly bigger than I need. The guy offered it to me for $50. But it will over hang the base by a couple inches on each side. Does anyone know if it's possible to get a tempered glass tabletop cut down? Also, my dh is concerned that his optical mouse won't work on a glass top - does anyone know whether this is true?

Can't answer about the optical mouse question, but you can definitely get the tempered glass cut down. Find any local glass shop, and I imagine they'd be able to do it for a very small fee. Every town has a glass shop (at least here in Massachusetts where they get tons of business from auto insurance windshield and now side window to get the GPS break-ins!). Anyhow, the glass companies in my town are very friendly and have helped me with framing artwork, cutting glass for tabletops, etc.

Tempered glss cannot be cut

7) Tempered glass cannot be cut, drilled with holes and other further processes

Tempered glass is to designed to shatter instead of breaking into shards

You could get naugahyde (sp?) and staple it onto a piece of MDF, then put furniture tacks or painted flat tacks into the edges, a la upholstery nails, along the edges.

You can do that with oil cloth as well, if you want a print.

You can't paint the MDF to cut down on gas.

The nice thing about this, is that it makes a wonderful writing/drawing surface if the fabric isn't too textured.

My grandmother was big on covering things with fabric and good quality plastic sheeting... seats, tables, you name it.

I assume you checked out all those desktops you used to be able to order separately at Ikea?

DH made ours out of cherry planks he ordered online, finished with Waterlox, really pretty. We just bought nice thick maple from a local woodworking shop for less than $4 a board foot, but it does have to be cut, glued up, sanded and stained-- eventually. Maybe should have bought the butcher block from Ikea :)

Kats, I just wanted to tell you how delighted I was with your link above! Holy Cow, I hit the jackpot for great, historically accurate stencils. I couldn't be more tickled with that resource. :)

The faux marble above is done on MDF, the helpmeet routed the edge for me. It is my "desk" and I'm sitting in front of it now. Very sturdy, no "flex".

I'm looking at the melamine coated 4x8 sheets for increased cutting table area, but they don't make my "cut" for "fun".

My optical mouse works on my glass computer desk.

chelone,

I agree. His stencils are a step above everything else. I don't like cutsy and these are all just so well done.