I had to give this built in desk a lot of thought. I would have loved to have made it a true built in, since my son has never used his closet (except for shoving in junk when tell him to clean his room, lol) as he prefers to use his dresser. And while I have no plans for moving ever again, I do recognize the best laid plans can change. If I removed the closet, it would become a 3 bedroom home, and that won't work. That was part of the big draw to my inspiration photo. It could easily convert back to a closet if needed.
So to do this built in, we decided to do a frame, instead of just a cleat. I know my son, he's hard on things. I wanted the extra stability of a frame.
So, nothing difficult about this.
The frame has two supports in it to distribute the weight. We then attached the frame to the studs in the wall.
This ended up being more difficult only because it doesn't appear that our closet does have studs evenly placed as the walls do. I have no idea why.
(when did this photo get blurry?!) We used a laser level to shoot a line 30" up the wall (this is the height the desk in my bedroom is and I wanted to make sure he was getting an adult sized height since he keeps getting bigger, not smaller!) and marked if off with painters tape. We then pre-drilled holes so that when the frame was set in, it would be easier to attach it to the studs.
The blue vertical pieces of tape are where the studs are. Again, we wanted to make it as easy as possible to find them so this could be installed.
The top piece has been added. There will be a 2x3 across the front to create a lip, as we are going to put a piece of tempered glass on top of the desk. As I have mentioned, my son loves to draw, and I could see him pressing down on the plywood top and leaving indention's. Or setting a glass down and having water marks. I need this to be teen boy resistant!
I still need to lightly sand this, stain, and varnish it before I can add the glass top. But I feel like I've crossed the threshold of the halfway mark on this project.
While I'm waiting for stain and varnish to dry, I'm focusing on the task lighting that needs to go in here. The first thing I have to loose is the bare bulb at the top of the closet. It's a chain pull and it's ugly!! 
The thing is, there are very few options for chain pull lights. Here's the one I really like. Yes, this is by far my favorite. It's also $99
I'm not paying $99 for a closet light fixture. It's not because I'm cheap (well, I am, but that's a discussion for another day). Right now, $100 for a single light is not in my budget.
I also found this one on Etsy. It's a little more reasonable in cost and still has a nice industrial feel to it. This one is $59. I really would have liked to have spent no more than $20 on a closet light, but that doesn't seem to be possible. I could look around at some local lighting stores, but I don't think I'll find anything less than this one.
The thing about this closet light? I don't expect him to use this light frequently. I suspect he'll be using the task lighting that I'm going to install as well. But I've been looking for a place in my home to use an Edison bulb, and this is probably the only room that it will work.
I keep mentioning tasking lighting. I have two more light sources I want to add. The first is a desk light. I have one that I use and I think it's really important, particularly for studying. These are the two I've narrowed it down to.
Both lamps are from Ikea, and I really, really like Lamp 2. Of course, it's the higher price of the two at $35
Lamp 1 is the cost effective one for $20. And until I put it next to Lamp 2, I like it just fine.
I'm not sure yet, but there's no rush since I'm not ready to buy it just yet.
I'm also contemplating a shelf light. I like the idea of a soft light he can turn on that won't light up his room. Ikea has one that specifically mounts behind the TV, which I like the idea of:
This would mount behind his TV, which will be mounted to the wall. I need to take a trip to Ikea and look at this in person. I need to keep in mind that I only have four outlets, and if I fill them all up with lights, I've defeated the purpose of having them for his electronics. I believe they have battery operated ones as well, which may be a better option. But I think I need to look at them in person to make a final decision.
Well, hopefully the next post will be a completed, built in desk!
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