Progress in the Study! And How to Build a Hanging Shelving and Desk Unit

Progress in Sam’s study continues! When I last left off, we’d tricked Sam’s younger sister (who is living with us for a few months) into painting it for us before she started her full-time job. We were still scarred from painting the guest room where she’s currently residing, so it was really nice to watch this room transform over the course of a few days without us doing much work.

With the room newly painted, it was time for me to insert myself back into the picture and take over the fun parts. I had been thinking I might have a full reveal for you today, but we ended up needing to order a few more things than expected so today I’m sharing about the biggest DIY project in the room and then I’ll be back with the full reveal once a few products come in.

Here’s a sneak peek I shared on instagram:

(Do you follow us on instagram? We launched our joint account on Monday, what has taken you so long?!?)

As I mentioned in the study inspiration post I shared a few weeks ago, I was really digging the idea of a single shelving + desk unit for the long wall of the study:

I thought that a single, sleek piece(as opposed to lots of individual pieces of furniture) would help create a streamlined, clean look, which this room really needs because a) it’s pretty small, b) we’re going to cram it full of books and office supplies, and c) it needs to double as a guest room when our other guest rooms overfloweth, so maximum open floor space is important to leave room for the air mattress.

So, a single, sleek piece is what I built this weekend:

It’s exactly how I dreamed it would be! And it totally fulfills Sam’s original request for the room, which consisted of “shelves…just, shelves…” (of course, as things progressed he got increasingly more demanding — “I want a chair!” “I want a TV!”, and the whole thing almost went off the rails one evening as I reached my compromising breaking point…but that’s a story for another day).

Not that this was a particularly ingenious endeavor, but I thought I’d share a full tutorial since there are a few elements I’m particularly proud of (especially that I finally learned to use my circular saw). Also stay tuned, because there’s a gif of the whole thing coming together at the end, which I assume wins me approximately 1.1 million blogger points.

So here’s how it went down. I decided to go with a Closetmaid hanging shelf system, since I’d read some good things — basically you buy a single horizontal rail that you screw into studs, and then the rest of the shelving hangs off of that without require more holes in the wall. I did end up drilling a few more to fully stabilize things, but they’re very small and will be easy to patch.

Here’s what I grabbed at Home Depot:

• 80″ “Hang Track” in white (1)
• 48″ Track Bracket in white (x4) — these are what hang vertically off the horizontal track, and you need one every 24″ so I knew I needed 4 of them to create shelves that ran the full 90″ across the wall
• 9″ bracket in white (x10) — to support the shelves, which I wanted to be 10″ wide. I knew I needed 4 per shelf plus 2 additional ones to support a shelf across half of the wall (I got Rubbermaid brackets, rather than Closetmaid, brackets because they worked with the Closetmaid tracks but were a little cheaper).
• 18.5″ bracket in white (x4) — to support the desk, which I wanted to be 20″ wide
• 10″ x 8′ common board (x4) — since the full length of the wall is 90″, I needed to get 8′ boards that I planned to trim at home. I wanted to use two of them as shelves, and then join two of them together to create a 20″ desk.
• 10″ x 6′ common board (x1) — to trim down and create the shelf reaching across half of the wall
• Mounting hardware for Closetmaid ShelfTrak system
• 3″ screws to attach shelves to brackets and stabilize vertical rails on the wall (x22)

All told, the supplies cost me $210 — not super cheap, but pretty good for so much shelving plus a big desk.

I loaded up all these supplies in my car:

And headed home to get started installing it!

The first step was to hang the horizontal track. It has 10 screw holes, and I wanted to make sure at least a few of them were over studs. Since the track is 80″ and my wall is 90″ long, I knew that the track would reach almost all the way across the wall. I also knew it didn’t need to be perfectly centered because I could still hang the rails evenly and the track would be hidden once I put the shelves on. I used my studfinder to locate a stud near one edge of the wall:

I drilled a hole, then used the mounting hardware (aka 2″ screws) to attach the track to the wall on one end. Then I used my studfinder to locate a stud on the other end of the wall that lined up with one of the holes on the other end of the track. With both ends of the track secured into studs, I went down the line drilling and attaching the rest of the holes, and managed to hit a few other studs along the way for good measure.

With the track up, it was time to arrange the vertical rails. They just latch onto the hang track, and you can slide them around as needed to get the right spacing. I placed one on each end about 10″ from the edge of the wall, and then spaced the other two so that they were evenly spaced (which ended up being ~22″ between each rail).

While it’s not “required,” I wanted to add some extra stability by putting a few screws into each rail to secure them firmly to the wall. I used some of the 3″ screws I’d picked up, and since these aren’t bearing any weight (just preventing the rails from shifting from side to side) they didn’t need to be secured in the studs.

Next it was time to put on the brackets. Standard desk height is 30″, so I measured that and placed the 18.5″-deep brackets for the desk.

I wanted the shelves to be spaced evenly above the desk, so based on the height of the wall I calculated that each shelf should be ~13″ apart from the next. I measured this and placed the brackets accordingly. Then it was time to put the boards in place to see if I liked the placement.

Yes, they needed to be trimmed. And painted. But it was looking promising, and I like that with the top shelf in place you can’t see the hanging track at all. I also realized that it was a good thing I got slightly shallower brackets (9″ and 18.5″), because — as I always forget — boards are actually narrower than their formal dimensions. So the 10″ boards really were more like 9.25″, making the desk more like 18.5″.

Having confirmed that I liked the look, I hauled the boards off to the basement to trim them down. While I was inclined to use my tablesaw, I have a hard time cutting long boards on it because it’s in such a tight corner of the basement right now. So instead I decided to try my circular saw — which was a gift from Sam’s dad and stepmom — for the first time.

Even though using new power tools (especially saws) is always a little scary, it was ended up being pretty straightforward. I determined through some practice cuts that I should use a piece of wood to guide the saw to create a smooth cut (but not a flimsy piece of wood, I learned my lesson on the coffee table!). For trimming each piece, I set it up like so (except with a second clamp on the other side — somehow missed that in this photo):

The plywood created a smooth guide for the edge of the saw, and I was able to get nice clean cuts for the three shelves. Not so clean were my pants — why did I decide to wear black?

To cut the desk, I first wanted to join together the two boards so that I could do a single cut across the full width of both. I could have used metal brackets since the bottom of the desk won’t really be visible, but I thought it was the perfect time to try out the kreg jig that my dad gave me recently (which he’d had in his workshop and not really used because he knows many more sophisticated joining techniques).

I didn’t have a manual to follow because the instructions came on a dvd to be watched as a video and I didn’t feel like doing that, so I just experimented to figure out what to do. Essentially, I just took one of the boards and mounted it in the kreg contraption, then drilled holes in through the device to create sideways pocket holes:

For a really clear tutorial on using a kreg jig, definitely check out the one YHL put together (because they explain everything well). Their kreg set is the exact same one as mine, and in retrospect I realize a few things I could have done differently to get cleaner holes — but they work and won’t be visible, so I’m going with the flow.

With the pocket holes drilled, I lined the two boards up next to each other and used the long drill bit that came with the set to put in screws attaching the two pieces.

Success! That’s New Tool #2 mastered for the day. And with them joined together, I was able to trim them to the right length with a single smooth cut on each end using the circular saw.

Next I put some wood filler along the seam between the boards, and then while I was waiting for it to dry I embarked on one last prep step: cutting a small hole for running computer cords from the top of the desk down to the outlet below. I used the drill attachment that I’d purchased to drill the hole in the basement door last year, placing the guide only half over the edge of the desk to create a semi-circle. The only small complication was that the guide is designed to fit over thicker wood (like the thickness of a door), so I just used a scrap piece of wood under the desk and clamped it in place.

The result was a nice semi-circle:

Then it was time to sand the wood filler and give the whole surface a good sanding with my orbital sander.

And finally I could paint the shelves and desk. The shelves got a few coats of semi-gloss white paint I had on hand for painting trim in the house, and I gave the desk an extra coat and two coats of water-based poly for added durability.

Once everything was dry, it was time to bring them back upstairs and put them in place:

I used the 3″ screws I’d bought to secure the shelves to each bracket (every bracket has a little hole in the underside):

And then it was time to load up the shelves!

Before I started putting things on the desk, though, I decided I wanted to trim it just slightly since it was a tad longer than I wanted:

So I brought my circular saw up and trimmed off just a tiny bit on one end:

Forty-five minutes of vacuuming later, it was all set:

Totally worth it.

And then we brought in all the computer equipment, printer, file cabinet, the awesome magazine rack I found at Brimfield, and a table lamp. With those in place, we were finally done!

And that wraps up the study project! Oh wait, no — I want to make some art for the large blank space where the half shelf ends. Oh and also, the other side of the room still looks like this (minus the chair and lamp, which I moved into place after taking this photo):

But we’re making progress! We’re on track to have the room finished by Thanksgiving, which was my goal, and I will definitely keep you posted!

Oh wait, and here’s your progress gif, as promised:

Now I feel like a real blogger. Phew.

(Sharing at Tip Me Tuesday, Totally Terrific Tuesday, Remodelaholic, Create Link Inspire, and Two Uses Tuesday.)