Synopsis: There are many creative ways to build storage into a desktop. A gallery, which sits on the top and combines drawers, shelves, doors, and compartments, can turn a flat surface into a personal space great for reading, writing, or other work. This article explains the basics of construction, plus gives tips on how to customize your gallery to fit any desk. Barty’s version goes together using several different joinery techniques—dowels join the top and uprights, while stopped rabbets, dadoes, and splines secure the bottom shelves and other dividers. The gallery is secured to the desktop with screws driven from the underside of the top.

It all started with a guy.

He liked to fly-fish and to tie his own flies, but he left feathers and thread and hooks strewn everywhere. I inadvertently got hooked too many times. My solution was to build a space for him to…