A Home Built Office Desk

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Place the cabinet, file drawers, or shelving that will support the free end of the door. Fabricate spacers as needed to raise the top of the cabinet or file drawer to the same height as the top of the support board. You can build a box from 1x2s, lay in strips of wood, pile on bricks or blocks or whatever suits your fancy. Just be sure the top surface of the spacer is level and even with the short support board on the far wall so the door won't wobble. To assure the spacer stays put, use contact cement to glue small cleats on top of the cabinet and underside of the door, glue on strips of Velcro, or set keeper screws into the wood so the spacer won't move.

As the photo shows, my window is located toward the end of the table. If I'd supported the door with a filing cabinet, my chair would have been pushed to the left so far I'd have been looking at the drapes. So, I fastened a length of 1x2 and "L" brackets (same as on the far wall) on the back of a sturdy folding bookshelf, loaded the bottom shelves with my heaviest tomes and stacks of magazines to give it weight, and attached the door to that. I am right-handed, so this is the reverse of how the desk should be arranged, but I need to see the woods and the water a whole lot more than I need to have pencils at hand.

The Second Table

The other table, which I use for drafting, is more conventionally arranged, and there I do need to reach out for pencils and drawing angles and all. I set this table at a height that would let the drawing board rest at the best angle and height for me. Arrange yours at the height that's best for what you do.

You'll note in the photos that I put my filing cabinet under the corner of the desk. In my work pattern—going from computer to drawing aboard—that's dead space, and I never scoot a chair under it. You may find that the corner is key to you work flow—and the files (if you use them) can go to support an open end of one table.

Affix the second door the same way you did the first, with a 1x2 along the long wall and at the closed end (unless the second door rests atop the first, as mine does), and a freestanding cabinet or whatever at the open end. If window casing or other molding interferes with a clean run of 1x2, you can apply it in strips where the molding isn't in the way. Double the 1x2 or fabricate shims or spacers to bring it out from the wall if more depth is needed to get the support out beyond the molding.

If a molding or uneven walls push the door out so far from the wall that there is a space at the rear (as is the case with my typing table), pencils and such will forever want to roll off and get lost in the clutter on the floor under the desk (and you will stack boxes and books and other stuff there). You have three choices: 1) notch table or molding to inset door to rest flat against the wall; 2) trim long strips of wood to fill open spaces between rear of door and wall; or 3) attach a thin backboard to the rear of the door. I did the latter, fastening a strip of 1x2 with flat brackets. (See the illustration to visualize how to solve these problems.)

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