Its finally here! The big "reveal day" for the closet desk Ive been working hard on. This project was fun, exciting, frustrating and horrible all at the same time. It was full of surprises, all bad of course. The problems caused the finish date to be stretched over a few weeks even though it ONLY took 29 hours to finish.
I started by having the MDF cut to size at Lowe's. The shelves, desk tops and table leg got a nice even coat of white paint. (Sorry, I don't have the name but I know it is from Valspar) These small foam rollers are always my go-to when it comes to painting. They give a flawless application.
Next, I pulled down the shelf, cleats, hardware and hanger bar that was in place.
I used a utility knife to cut the caulking away from the wall.
I have removed closet cleats before so I was aware of the "nail gun happy" contractor that put this up before me. I came prepared with a tapping hammer and flat head screw driver to pry it away from the wall.
You can be as careful as you like but there is always some kind of wall damage when you remove these.
This called for some wall patches and plaster to repair the wall.
Once that was finished I marked my studs and hung the cleats.
The wall received a coat of Valspar Silver Dusk. Its a really pretty soft grayish blue.
There is a large rainbow mural on the wall so my client wanted to stay away from child like blues as much as possible. This bedroom is serving as an office/playroom.
I made sure to cover the cleats so they would blend in better.
A wooden spacer had to be made for the table leg due to it being 29" and the desk top 34". This was foreseen, but what I didn't see coming was the difficulty of finding the right size screws needed for the attachment. It took four trips to three stores to get the correct wood/machine threaded screw needed. I also found out that they do not make the size of screw needed to connect the wooden spacer to the desk top. My father had to create what I needed by cutting four screws down to the length needed. Talk about a pain in the bum!
The leg was finally attached! There was allot of screaming and there might have been some dancing going on at this point. (Sorry, for the out of focus phone pic. I'm really better than this.)
With everything installed I could start on the molding. I'm not going to lie, I was scared to tackle this part. Miter cuts scare me. They are HARD and very easy to mess up. I had to bring my secret weapon in for this one- my dad. He was able to instruct me with simple directions that made the process easy. It gave me perfect cuts each time.
We attached the moulding with wood glue and finishing nails from the nail gun. Then I covered the nail holes with putty and filled in the cracks with caulking. After a light sanding. I gave everything another coat of white paint and finished with two coats of poly.
The molding covered the ugly wooded spacer nicely. No one will ever know its there.
Here is the finished product! I randomly threw on the decor that my client purchased for it so it didn't look so empty. I cant wait to see what it will look like once she gets it decorated and her Apple computer set up. As soon as her new computer comes in and she decides on placement, we are going to cut a hole in the desk top for the wires. She is also on the hunt for a white file cabinet that will tuck under the desk nicely.
If you couldn't guess why the table top is lower on one side, its to accommodate her three beautiful little girls. Now they have a place to do projects while the grown ups can work. The adult desk top is 39" and the child side is 34". (I love how our red cork board pops against this color)
Lets look at more pictures, shall we?
She picked up the shelf brackets at Lowe's. I love the finish and industrial look they add to the space.
One last BEFORE:
and AFTER:
I plan on taking more pictures when she gets the space finished. I will share them as soon as I get them. I still need to show you the door desk I made for my office. That's coming as soon as I get the molding on.
Has anyone attempted to make their own office furniture or turn an unused closet into a work space? I would love to hear about it! Have a good one!
Stay Humble
Amber
