When I sketch, a tilted surface has always felt more practical and comfortable than a flat one. So instead of buying an expensive drawing desk, I decided to build my own — in the style I wanted and fitted to a spot in my room. Here’s the result and roughly how I made it.

As you can see in the video, the leg is hinged so the whole desk folds open and closed. That lets me free up floor space when I’m not using it. The leg also locks in the tilt angle.

For the tilt, I cut the leg shorter than the desk’s edge — by the angle I wanted. To make the leg fold, I used two hinges. I also added a small stopper on the main board so the leg lands in the right spot.

To stop the sketchbook from sliding off, I added a long, thin, soft-faced strip of wood at the bottom — it acts as a lip the sketchbook rests against. Just below the top edge I added a little tray for pens and erasers.

Finally, to mount the desk on the wall I fixed a sturdy square piece of wood to the wall, then connected that square to the main board with three solid hinges. The desk now opens and closes off the wall like a door.

End result: a desk I can fold open and shut whenever I want, that didn’t cost me as much as a regular drawing desk, and which I can comfortably read books on too.