Designing this desk with the client (Rebecca) was easy. She knew the size and wood type, the rest was up to me. I had fun “interviewing” her and finding out what would and would not work. Discovering that there was a cat, who loves to nap near her while she was working, gave me the vision of a ladder type shelf. I envisioned the cat slowly walking up to perch on the desktop or maybe lounging on one of the rung type shelves.

Rebecca lives in an apartment on the top floor and her office is up stairs in a loft. I needed to make the desk modular. I also wanted it to be reversible, meaning the drawers should be able to go on either side. After a few exchanges of sketches we decided on a design and the build went pretty much as expected.

I was able to make the cat ladder shelf adjustable, or slidable. This accomplished two things, it’s nice to have control over how wide the seating area is, plus it aided in making the desk modular. The shelf is attached to the desktop underside with “T” track and large plastic bolts for easy adjustments.

The drawers were straight forward finger joint construction. I used some black tinted resin to fill a large knot and I was happy with the results. I even added a secret compartment in one.

The finish was with a simple wipe on polyurethane (4 coats) and final coat with aerosol poly spray.

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