To build the cabinet doors, I needed to add a dado groove into the inside edges of the rails and stiles. I drilled pocket holes into the top of my cabinet sides with my Kreg R3, attached the plywood backing, and finished it off with paint. It was so easy to make and I can customize it to any height I need! I really love the look of this DIY moulding. I measured cut all of my bottom moulding to size and then set it in place and attached it with 1 1/4″ brad nails. The bottom moulding will be flush with the top side of the fixed bottom. The top of the cabinet bottom should measure 5 1/4″ up from the bottom of the cabinet verticals. I attached the fixed bottom with 1 1/4″ pocket screws and wood glue. Once the book cases were built, I built the desk cabinet. The idea of them not being at the same height would have driven me crazy! It meant changing the size of the bottom drawer for both book cases, which wasn’t hard at all. As you may remember from part one of the Murphy Bed project, I modified the height of the middle fixed shelf on the narrower book case to match the height of the fixed shelf on the modified book case. I think I had them both put together within maybe 30 minutes to an hour. The bookcases from both the original plans and my modifications went together quickly and easily. This saved me from having to fill them later when it was time to paint. You can see that I attached it so my pocket holes would be at the top of the book case. Next, I attached the bookcase top and header rails. The reason for it being attached now is to provide some stabilization until the bookcase is ready to be painted/stained. Thankfully it all came apart without any plywood breaking apart. I did accidentally glue it to the shorter cabinet vertical which made for fun times when trying to take it off to stain it. Since I was planning to paint the book case but stain that shelf, I did not glue it when I added my 1 1/4″ pocket screws. You can see the rabbeted edges to allow for the 1/4″ plywood backing to sit flush against the back edges of the bookcase. The printable plans are very thorough, but everything is actually really easy to put together. I’ve included affiliate links to products I used in this post for your convenience. They will walk you through every step of the desk modification build.
You can download the free plans for the desk modifications here. This left me with a 20″ desktop, which is 4″ narrower than the average width, but still plenty big enough to work at.
Plus our guests may appreciate a place to sit and use a computer or work on anything without having to fold up the bed in order to use the desk. Mostly because I know my kids will enjoy laying on the bed reading books or playing games while I work in the office. I also wanted to make sure that there would still be enough space to sit at the desk if the Murphy bed was down. After all, our guests would probably appreciate a little privacy. The most important being the ability to fit the entire Murphy Bed unit in the room and still be able to open and close the door. There were a few really important elements that I needed to take into consideration.
It took a lot of careful thought and consideration to come up with the modifications for the desk. Today, I’m continuing on from that post and sharing the free plans and tutorial for the desk modifications. If you missed the tutorial, you can find that here. Hey everyone! Last week I shared how I teamed up with Rockler Woodworking and Hardware as well as PureBond plywood to build a gorgeous Modern Farmhouse Murphy Bed for my office.