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bedroom birch closet computer desk danish oil desk did it myself oak reclaimed space shelves small space under $500 workspace

Project Details

Created by Jaybill McCarthy

I have been on a quest for the perfect workspace setup for a very long time. I've tried many different things, from a store-bought desk to building my own furniture and everything in between. Useable and comfortable are often at odds with good looks when it comes to workspaces.

By far the most usable setup I've ever had was a re-purposed dining room table. It had lots of surface area and it was easy to spread stuff out on but was usually a mess because of the lack of drawers.

When I moved into my new house, my office ended up in a basement bedroom, which while roomy, had exactly zero character. Add to that my giant dining room table square in the middle of the room and I didn't even want to go in there.

I was reading and issue of ReadyMade (which is a great magazine, by the way) in which they had plans for a desk built into a closet. The room in question had the perfect closet, so I decided to give it a go. Their plan involved leaving the doors or employing a curtain. I didn't do this because the space is already pretty out of the way and I was planning to make it look nice anyway.

This is what resulted. It's a highly usable and attractive workspace that leaves the rest of the room to do whatever I want with. (NEXT PROJECT!)

I added a little halogen under-cabinet lamp up top and some shelves at the back. Those bucket things I got at Lowe's for $12 a piece. They're great for storing things I need handy but don't want visible all the time. The storage is also all above the desk instead of below it, giving me plenty of room both on the desk and under it. It still feels really open (due to the staggering of the shelves) but makes really great use of space.

The desk itself is nothing more than a 2"x4" stud frame (hung on the wall much as you would hang a deck on a house) with a piece birch veneer plywood on top and a piece of oak trim on the front. I rubbed all the visible parts with a few coats of danish oil before assembling them in the space.

The return (where the keyboard looking thing is) is just a shelf like the ones above the desk.