If you live in or near a college town, wait for the start of fall semester. Most home improvement stores will sell pre-fabricated lofts at a pretty reasonable price.

I don’t have pictures, but something I’ve always wanted to do is build various shapes of faux-shelves and even benches that are actually part of the wall, so that it looks like the wall is extending portions of itself out to become functional. For instance, having a waist-high shelf that juts out of the wall sharply at the shelf, and then fades back into the wall at the bottom. It would be like a phone stand, but would actually be part of the wall.