Wednesday, August 10, 2011

The Door to my Heart

So, the last time I left you, I had showed you my office after painting the walls and the trim.  It was already looking A LOT better, but it was just an empty room- now came the fun parts.  Since this room was going to be an office/ craft room, I knew I needed a lot of work space.  Being that this room isn't one of the main living areas in my house, the re-decorating budget was slim to none... so imagine my sticker shock when I started looking for desks....like this one from IKEA.


Yikes!  180 bucks and it's not even that big!  Okay so $180 may not seem like a lot, but it was more than I was willing to spend for something that didn't even have the space I wanted.  So, I talked to my dear sweet husband. ;)  We had some old doors in our basement- solid doors, not the hollow kind.  So, that handy-man that I married made me a door desk!


The doors were a little too wide, so he cut them down to size.  Then he mounted 2x4s on the wall to rest the desk on to give it extra support.  So the desk is actually attached to the wall which makes it extra sturdy.  I found the table legs online at iKEA for $3.50 each, but since we don't have an iKEA close, I was going to have them shipped... not a great idea.  The total for 4 table legs was $14 before shipping, after shipping, the total for the order was $44.  Yeah, that's right, the shipping was over double what the actual order cost.  So I decided to hold off on the desk until I could make a trip to iKEA.  When we went on vacation in May, I got to stop at the iKEA in Charlotte so I picked up 4 table legs along with some accessories for the office (the hat boxes stacked on the desk).  After the desk was standing, I painted it with glossy white enamel paint.  It's nice and shiny and you can wipe it down.


I pulled in a chair that I already had, set up my computer, printer and sewing machine, threw my supplies into baskets and jars, and what I was left with was an almost no-cost office re-do! 

The only problem with making a desk like this, is that there are no drawers.  I needed a place to stick some books and my office supplies, so I bought this cheap-o bookcase from Target for $17.  It gave me all the storage I needed and blends well with the desk.











Just for fun, here is a before and after shot.



I had been hunting for things for this room for a long time, so I got some really good deals.  Here is the breakdown of how much it cost.

Desk- $21.00 (doors were free, paint $7, legs $14)
Chair- $0.00- already owned
Bookcase- $17.00
Paint for walls and trim- $20.00
Curtain rod- $1.50 (was supposed to be $17 found it tucked away on a shelf at Walmart on clearance!)
Curtain- $4.00
Lamp- $10.00 (clearance at TJ Maxx)
Storage drawers- $0.00- alread owned
Accessories- $20.00
Total: $93.50

Not bad for turning a completely non-functional room into a multi-tasking one!


Brooke  Y

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