Chapter 7: Desk Plans

Psst. This post won’t make much sense without Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. Happy reading!

Happy Saturday! As I was hard at work all yesterday working on this part of the project, I couldn’t get the post pulled together in time for yesterday… but the good news is that now you have some Saturday morning reading with your coffee and breakfast!

Silver linings. 🙂

Consider this your update on our closet-turned-office situation. We are currently in the process of building the desk that will go in there, but I wanted to give you a little glimpse into the direction we’re headed.

At first, I thought about just sticking the desk we had before right into the closet and calling it a day. The thing is, we really wanted a built-in look, something to fit the entirety of the space, and our desk was too small for that. Also, I’ve been wanting a bit more counter space for doing projects and storing supplies and the desk we had didn’t offer too much real estate in that department. Unfortunately, we don’t have the space to keep things that we’re not using (even though I really loved that piece and could definitely see it being used for something else…like in a kitchen… or a foyer!) so we had to get rid of it. On the bright side, it went to my brother and his fiancee, who are fixing up what will be their first home together (you’ve met them here).

After we got rid of the desk, we needed to start plans for what will end up in the new office.

Enter the church I work at.

Months and months ago, we were getting rid of- and by that I mean throwing away- a matching shelf and drawer unit. I have a habit of getting anxious when things are being given or thrown away. My heart automatically wants to scoop it all up and load it into my car, even if my mind is reminding me that UM, EXCUSE ME, BUT THERE IS NO ROOM OR NEED FOR THAT IN THE HOUSE.

Well, this time, my heart won. I took home this set of drawers:

I don’t know if you can tell from the above picture, but this piece is a decent size. The drawers are bigger than you would think and they can hold quite a bit! I grabbed a shot with my hand in one of them for reference.

I let the shelving unit get thrown away, but then had an ohmygoshwhathaveIdone moment the next day and coerced Mitch to jump into the church dumpster to get it for me (remember I mentioned that here?). And this was after our Valentine’s date dinner. In the pitch black. In nice clothes. He was not a happy camper, but I’m proud to say that I married a real team player. 🙂

So after all was said and done, this is what we ended up with:

My original plan was to use both of them as the base and find a slab of wood to lay across the tops to create a desk. Unfortunately, we found that they don’t fit inside the space with enough room to get a chair between them. In fact, it’s not even close!

Plan B was to stack them on top of each other and slip a piece of wood between them and attach it to the other wall of the closet to create a stack of storage and the desk space.

After having them stacked like that for awhile and thinking it through, we realized that it just felt cramped and didn’t give us as much desk space as we had been wanting from the beginning. It just goes to show how important it is to live with things for a bit to see if you really like them! Plus, I came to terms with the fact that the only reason we were trying to use the shelf piece was because I wanted to have some shelving. And there are definitely other ways we could achieve that. So we nixed the shelving unit and donated it to Goodwill. Hey, it’s better than going back in the trash, right?

Back to the drawing board with Plan C, which is the plan we think we’re going with. The drawer unit will sit on the left hand side of the closet and we will install supports on the back wall and right wall that divides the shoes in order to rest a slab of wood to act as the desk top. After thinking a lot about where we could add some shelving (corner shelves in the left corner? floating shelves on the left side wall?), I think we’ll do one long shelf running the length of the entire space, mimicking the lines of the desk top. And of course, it will be shallow enough to stay out of the way of things happening on the desk.

So about that top piece… we toyed with the idea of getting butcher block, affixing a series of smaller planks together, etc. but in the end we wanted something smooth and cheap. I took a trip out to our local Habitat Restore (I love that place) and marched myself right back to the wood scraps pile to see if I could find anything. Nada. Nil. Zilch.

And then I turned around to leave and saw…

DOORS! Of course! Why didn’t we think of that? I even managed to find one that was the exact depth we needed and would just have to be cut down to length.

This sucker was dirt cheap- $10, but with their half off sale, just $5. Also, it didn’t have any cuts or beveled panels, so it is a win in the “smooth” department. I think we’ll be able to fortify it enough that the hollowness (it’s a hollow core door) won’t be a huge issue. Truthfully, it’s pretty sturdy- the only reason I knew it was hollow was because it was lighter than some of the others. And if I’m wrong, well it was $5.

This is where we’re at now. The door has been trimmed (we might try and use the excess for the shelving) and we did a mock set up to see if it would work as well as it did in our minds. So far, so good! The only problem is that our current office chair is now WAY too short for the new set up. Guess we’ll be looking for one of those next. 🙂

In terms of what it will look like after the building part is finished, I’ve been playing with different options- paint it a color? paint it white? stain it? Right now, something like this is what I’m leaning toward:

via

And just for kicks, I did a little “dreaming” about how this could translate into our space. Nothing fancy- I do not own, nor know how to operate Photoshop, but even this rough sketch helps give a picture of where I think we’re headed. White desk, dark top and shelf, we’ll probably go with a white curtain of some sort, and I even “whitewashed” the blinds to see what it would look like if we did it in real life. I’m not completely in love with the color brown they are right now, so they might be tweaked depending on how the room evolves.

So we shall see! As soon as we can get this puppy “built” and ready for action, I will be sure to let you know… stay tuned! And have a GREAT weekend!