Built-In Desk

Wow, has it been an interesting few days.

I will explain after I show you my latest project:

Hailey's built-in desk.

My daughter is my youngest/final child. If anyone is the youngest, you know that you generally get last pick on everything.

When I was pregnant with my daughter, the boys moved into bigger rooms. Hailey got stuck with the smallest.

To make it fair, I gave her a second room. Her two rooms equal the size of one of the boys' rooms.

It's still a pretty small space, though.

If she is to get new furniture, I have to keep in mind how it will fit in her room.

I wanted to give her a desk. I thought this space would be perfect for a built-in.

Actually, I thought it would be a great place for a hamper, but since her dresser is in her 2nd room, it would make more sense to keep her hamper next to her dresser.

So I moved the shelf down to a desk height...

...patched the wall...

...and painted it.

I knew I wanted an extra shelf to hold supplies.

I also wanted to keep this a NO COST project.

I found this shelf in my basement.

It used to be in my living room.

But then I remodeled the living room.

You know I wouldn't just throw away a perfectly good floating shelf.

;)

So I cut the sides off the shelf to fit the space.

It got a coat of primer and a coat of white paint.

(Note: All paint used are my leftovers. I now have barely any reserve paint left =P)

Since I cut the ends off the shelf, I also cut off the hangers. But the back is hollow.

All I needed to do was make supports for it.

So I cut three pieces of 1x2's in the same lengths as the shelf's open pockets.

I predrilled holes in them.

And hung them up on the wall level with each other.

I secured it onto the supports with wood glue.

I also found hooks in my garage bins. 5 were screwed into the bottom of the shelf.

You will get to see that in a bit.

Anyways, I also had some flashing just hanging out in my garage.

(I know, I know, I hang onto everything.)

I cut it to size and nailed it onto the wall.

Now of course I couldn't keep those sharp edges there. It would need trim.

I found a perfect-sized trim next to my potting bench.

You can see a little bit of the shelf here as well. The hooks weren't in when I took this picture, though.

Anyways, I pulled up a chair from my basement. It belonged to an old desk that we no longer use.

I took the seat and back off....

...and gave it a coat of primer and a few coats of white paint.

Do you remember these ugly pots from the herb garden?

Here they are getting primed...

...to become art supply holders.

Ready for the grand reveal?

And then, after two days of hard work...dripping sweat everywhere in HOT weather...

...my daughter decided to draw all over EVERYTHING with PERMANENT MARKER!

I...was...pissed.

It was all over the walls (that took me days to paint when I was pregnant with her.)

It was all over her new shutters.

It was all over the new desk that I just spent two days making.

I didn't take any pictures of it. I went into over-drive trying to fix her artwork.

For your amusement, here's what it basically looked like:

I just got done restoring everything to its formal glory.

And do you know what's the kicker?

My daughter's had an issue with drawing on walls since she could walk and hold onto a crayon. I built this desk to give her a safe place to let out her creativity.

Ironic, no?

Needless to say, those supply buckets will not be holding any "permanent" supplies for a long time!