How to Build a Suspended Desk (Part 1)

We built a suspended desk that hangs from our wall. Yep, we’re officially nuts. Here’s the original plan,  desk dilemma, part 1, part 2, and part 3 of the desk building saga! Today we’re tackling part 1, the nuts and bolts of this beast (pun intended)!

Materials needed to make a suspended desk:

• 1 piece of 4’x8′ plywood
• 1 piece of 2′ x 4′
• sander
• saw
• wood glue
• clamps
• drill
• 2 brackets that can holdup to 1000 lb.
• “L” brackets
• nail gun
• dremel

I decided to buy fancy plywood since I was not planning on painting the wood:

The really nice Home Depot dude did the 5 major cuts for us for free! We decided to get some cuts done at the store so that the pieces would be easier to store at our tiny condo. We knew we would be taking a trip to my parents house to borrow their tools and make the tedious cuts.

The trip to my parents house was necessary because they own every tool known to man and have space to work. Our cute little condo has no yard and our neighbors don’t appreaicte the sound of power drills at midnight… can’t understand why? ; )

After all of the big cuts were made, it was time to put together the top of the desk. The top is made with 2– 20” x 48” pieces of plywood. We used wood glue, and then clamped the 2 pieces together over night to make the top piece.

My mom and little brother were a big help!

The top pof the desk drying…

The pieces are cut, we’re back in Austin, it is time for the installation. Here’s our super simple plan…

The back piece was leveled, and drilled into 3 studs in the wall. Apparently, the BF has to squint when leveling…I found this pretty entertaining. This piece is 11” x 48”.

Step 1 of installation done!

Next, install the braces, and drill the top to the braces. Make sure your sides match up.

Next, we used these smaller “L” brackets to attach the side pieces to the top.

We completed one box at a time. Each box has 8 metal “L” brackets.

Both side boxes are installed. Getting closer…

Time for the molding… Check out the raw edges in the picture above. We used an 1” x 2” x 8ft stick of oak wood for the molding. We used a miter box to cut the wood into the specified links.

Of course we borrowed this from my parents… and just for kicks check out the price on this thing…$4.87 from Walmart…How old is this thing? I must say it worked like a charm!

So, once again here is the before:

and here is the after…

Stay tuned for Part 2… with the sanding madness, routing the molding disaster, wire clean up, and attempting to stain… I also added some fun shelves!