One of the last items needed in the new cloffice is the desktop. It was decided upon a while ago that we would be making a floating desk. The board I created on Pinterest had a big part in this decision since my daughter was able to visualize what the heck we were actually making anyways. 

The next step was figuring out what material to make the desk out of. I needed a surface 63 inches wide and 19.25 inches deep. With a list of measurements in hand I was off to Home Depot. I checked out the shelving section first hoping that there would be some melamine pieces that I could work with. No luck there since the shelves were all just under 12 inches deep. 

There were larger piece of melamine but I would have to finish the edges. The melamine was also very thin. I had done some research on the benefits of using MDF verses Plywood verses solid wood (pine in particular). It was still up in the air between MDF and Plywood. The final decision came when I saw all these various materials in front of me. MDF works great and is easily paintable but it is a heavy piece of material. Such a large piece might sway a little and would also buckle if it ever got wet. So MDF was out. 

Pine was another option but I wanted my daughter to really use this desk and not feel like it is a delicate piece of furniture. Pine might be a choice for a teenager or older. For someone who draws, paints, does homework, etc on this desktop I decided a piece of Poplar plywood would be best. 

The very helpful people at Home Depot cut the wood to my measurements, as well as the pieces of 2 x 4 that I had cut for the cleats. I asked them a lot of questions about what materials they thought best. Questions included this took all of 30 minutes! 

These cleats will be mounted to the wall to hold up the desk surface. I’ll be using a bracket or two as well since the piece of wood will run into the cloffice on either side. The cleats will only be mounted on the back wall and right side since the bookcase is on the left.

So all the pieces are in the house and I’ve got some work to do. Wish me luck!