Step one: start a business. CHECK.
Step two: have a beautiful inspiring workspace for almost no dollars.
Um…..
I knew it was time to upgrade my home office space. I spent our first year at this house with my home office as my kitchen counter, which was incredibly stressful when it came to dinner time and there were computer cords on my cutting board. But I needed to be where the kiddos were. A 2 year old and a baby don’t watch themselves.
Then we purchased this gorgeous little mid-century secretary desk. It folds down to provide enough space for a laptop, and then folds away to hide away the “business.” This was ideal for a time because: 1) I didn’t have that much work to do and needed almost no storage or surface area and 2) I needed to be near the playroom and the small (but now slightly larger) children to keep them alive while I worked, which placed my desk squarely in our family room.
Now, though, those little babies are 2 and nearly 5 and (praise Jesus) don’t need 100% round-the-clock supervision. And, you know, I launched a business, which means more STUFF. The cute little secretary desk never actually closed, which also meant my design-brain never really shut down. Time to relocate my home office away from our main living area and into a less utilized space in our house - our front living room. Only I couldn’t quite bring myself to go through the trouble of unhooking all of the cords and moving the things. Cords are a pain and I wasn’t inspired to go there.
But then, divine intervention, on the way to church we passed a little office complex that was clearly in the midst of getting new furniture, because they put half a dozen mid-century modern desks OUTSIDE BY THE DUMPSTER! Clearly we had no choice but to stop and take a peek, so after church we drove back by and this little beauty was in amazing shape, the diamond in the rough. It’s probably nearing 60 years old and had but one scratch on the top. I could only hope to age that well. We loaded it up in the back of the SUV and brought it home.
Direct quote from the Hubs (resigned, but not unhappy): “This is what happens when you marry a designer.”
Yup.
All this thing needed was a few coats of white spray paint that I had in the garage (the metal piece below the laminate top was an unfortunate almond color) and the addition of a $3 Anthropologie pull I bought on clearance a few months back (because who could pass up that deal?!). The Eames chair and rug were already hanging around and got called up to the big leagues.
So now I have a big girl desk (seriously, like 3X the surface area of my old desk) for my new big girl business for about $6. Well, that is until I went on a gold-rush-office-accessory-shopping-spree at Target. Thank you, Nate Berkus.
tape dispenser (similar) | pencil cup - vintage | coffee mug | acacia tray (similar)
bookends (similar)
journal | pen
I want to sit at this desk all day. I snuck out of bed early this morning just to come down and enjoy the space in the quiet with my coffee. And those who know me know that I love sleep more than basically anything.
I love that there’s SPACE. Space to work and space to think and space that isn’t anywhere near the chaos of the playroom with toys everywhere.
Aaaaaah.
