What to do when you have 3 bodies sharing a very small home office space? We had my husband and the two kids packed into our tiny downstairs bedroom turned home office like sardines. Needless to say the siblings personal comfort bubble couldn't breathe and much bickering ensued.
In the pursuit of peace and family harmony I decided to capitalize on a wasted resource... the closet. The closet was becoming a catch-all for things that we probably needed to donate or relocate to a more appropriate closet in the house anyhow.
I decided to create a built-in desk space inside the closet so I could eliminate one of the bulky kid desks that stick out too far into the room.
I started by removing the builder closet shelf and clothes rod. Then painted the closet interior an accent color a few shades darker than the office wall color. I didn't want to completely lose storage in the closet for office related supplies, so I sourced some salvage cabinets. I found my cabinets at my local Habitat For Humanity ReStore for $20. While $20 sounds like a great bargain, and is compared to buying new, it is higher than I normally pay for salvage cabinets of this size. These cabinets were in extremely good condition needing absolutely no refinishing work. They really looked like they came right out of a box, so totally worth the price for a quickie little project like this.
Since the cabinets did not need any painting or refinishing and they were a natural wood stain color, I decided to go with a complimentary look for the desk instead of using a laminate or melamine material. I purchased a piece of butcher block board from Home Depot for about $35. Trimmed the board to fit, rounded the hard edge of the desk front with the orbital sander and gave the whole desk top a light sanding. I added 3 coats of clear semi-gloss water based poly, which was free because I had some leftover from another project.
I re-used the old closet shelf cleats to mount the desk top to the wall. We drilled some holes in each corner of the desk top to accommodate the computer equipment cords. I am very happy with the extra space we created in the office by moving one of the kids over to the closet area.
Stay tuned, as I think I have an idea how to save a little extra space by re-thinking my daughters desk situation. She is a bit of a clutter queen and she has taken it as her personal challenge to fill every square inch of her desk top with My Little Pony's, Beanie Boo's and snacks, much to her office mates annoyance. I think the "less is more" approach might be the way to go here and leave her just enough desk space to accommodate the necessary computer equipment.
Okay, so $$$ recap for this quick easy budget friendly solution.
Paint $16 after rebate
Cabinets $20
Desk board $35
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Total $71
I think that is probably a lot cheaper than a trip to Ikea for a desk and storage solution.
Yay, another project I can check off my "to do" list - Go me! Now off to the next distraction!
