Before and After: Family Desk and Entryway

You may or may not know this about me: I'm into design and decor. I don't have time to do alot, nor do I really have any natural inclinations about space, color, style, and layout, but I try.

And Sometimes I obsess! Since moving to our house a few years back I started obsessing about having an organized family desk area, and entryway area for the mounds of crap that come and go everyday: work bags, daycare bags, beach bags, winter gear, grocery bags, bags of bags, shopping bags... and sometimes it's all those bags on top of one another.

And for obvious reasons (I hope!), this space was not working for us. Eventually the coat rack in the above photo fell down in the middle of the night, rendering me terrified that a window had been broken and we were about to be robbed. Really, the sound of something shattering was just the Winnie the Pooh porcelain savings box on the corner of the shelf.
It pains me to look at this space. Yuck! I wrote intelligent papers here? Pop Quiz: Did I write my papers in the pitch dark with blinders on so as to avoid the overwhelming anxiety I would get from sitting in such a cluttered space. Or did I spend most of my time "working" at the computer actually distracted with planning my make over moves and looking at design blogs?
You're a smart cookie, number two is correct.

While obsession and lack of time very seldom lead to great home transformations, when obsession takes over there's no amount of time too little to inspire change.

Really, it all began when I started obsessing over this desk shelf. One I thought it was such a great organizational space. Two I loved that it was homemade because that's really all I thought we could afford to invest in.

With a very patient and helpful Dave we struggled through creating a look-a-like. Well, upclose it looks more like a Seusicall look-a-like as things are angled less than straight.

Our tips: don't cut and sand MDF board in your dinning room and kitchen. Can you say dust storm? I still find dust from that MDF. Perhaps wait until the snow has melted and you can do this outside. And do your best to know thyself when attempting to build. Don't assume because the tutorial/instructions lay everything out so nicely that you'll actually be able to match the skill required. If you can't cut/sand straight, practice on scraps first until you get it down. Measure measure measure. Maybe don't work at 2am when everyone's irritable. And, if you have children, assume it will take about 4 times longer than anything predicted. Great tutorial though, and hey if we could get this shelf standing in the end, maybe anyone could do it!


But now, for the after:
It's been up for sometime and working really well for us to organize all our junk. It needs some purging of papers, and some beautifying, but who has time for those things!





The shelf and hooks are actually bought from Sears Online. We contemplated building our own but decided against it when it wasn't actually happening! There is just never a convenient time for us to build things. We do however have all the mdf cut out (ridiculously crooked) in the basement, ready to go to build a matching shoe cubby.

At this point I'm fine with the stand in brown shelf!

I think the green buckets on top are from Superstore. They house summer items like bubble stuff, Corrina's gardening bag/tools, sunscreen etc. I like them because I can just grab them and take them outside with us. Or cram all their contents into one of the million bags hanging on the shelf.

Like when we go to the park to make triple long tunnels together.And end of working alone!



So, with such a well functioning, good lookin' desk and entryway, what is a gal left to obsess over? Well, a new nursery of course!



2 more months to go!

Ahhh, it's been a good update. Thanks for your time!