Built In Desks, Part 2...

I think we left off working vertically.

Shelves are sized up and built. We're painting the back wall to match the desk to make it look like one unit:

Both sides of the fireplace:

Slopped the paint on pretty well:

We're going to use these brackets at the very top of the shelves, and underneath each shelf to keep them sturdy and in place: 

Almost there... About 2/3rds of the way finished with this project:

Check back for more really soon... Thanks for reading!

Built-In Desks, Part 1...

Since we hammered down a few walls and moved the TV and couches into the newly renovated rooms, we wanted to do something with the previous living space. Simple upgrade, certainly not as large as this project:

So we decided on an office/workspace type of room with built-in desks for each of us.

We started off buying some unpainted kitchen cabinets and a sheet of 1" maple wood:

Quick advice: Plywood is pretty heavy and awkward, but you can ask the staff at Lowe's or Home Depot to cut it for you right there in the store. Per their policy, they wont make an exact cut for you, but you can give them a quick general idea of where you'd like them to make the cut. We had them saw off about a foot down the width of the board, then had them take the bigger piece and cut it across the width in half. It wasn't a busy night, or i'd usually only ask for one cut. 

We used some electrical tape for measurements and an idea of what we were getting into with this project: 

We painted the cabinets and raised the desk top about an inch or so:

Then it was time to measure and cut some wood planks for the shelves:

We positioned the shelves in place. Later on in this project, we will screw these shelves into the studs for more support:

Then it was back to the paint can:

So far, so good and we're about 1/3rd of the way through this project.

Check back for more this week! Thanks for reading...