DIY Built-In Desk

Sorry y'all. No final kitchen reveal as promised today. Instead we are jumping to a different space under construction: My office. Bedroom number 2 of three upstairs. It's been my little space for my clothes and all of my stuff since we moved in. But alas, having a baby is about compromising and changing and making space and so I am gladly welcoming LB into "my space" to create our combined office. The desk may go, but the clothes? They stay. :) Speaking of the desk... that big blue bad boy was PERFECT for law school. It was a Goodwill score that we painted before school started and it served me well throughout all the studying hours that were mandated for my little ol doctorate. But the time had come to take it apart and scoot it along.

I also had to say adios to my dressing bar... sad.

We had kicked around a lot of idea of what to do with the double desk situation that needed to happen. In the end we went with what would be the most simple: a double desk "built-in" made from stock cabinets at Home Depot, plywood, and laminate flooring.

We picked up two 18 inch lower cabinets (they each have drawers) and one 12 inch guy for the middle. When putting the plywood down we cut the slab in half and then used L brackets to attach it to the wall.

Once we got the slab all the way across the top, we stopped for a few days because we had to figure out what we were going to do for bookshelves on the top of the desk. Originally, I assumed we would do Billy Bookcases from Ikea. However, they were way too tall and as someone who has tried to cut Ikea crap before, we knew that trimming them would NOT be simple.

So, LB found these on Amazon for $97 each (picture is linked):

They were the perfect height and price. Once they arrived we realized that the decorative pieces weren't attached already. Which was great because I hated them for this project and was planning to saw them right off.

We once again used an L bracket all the way at the top to attach these to the wall and left space at the top for crown molding and trim to be applied down the road.

As for the top of the desk, we just picked up some Allure Laminate flooring and using an X-acto knife and some tape for the lines, trimmed it up to fit. In hindsight- I'd get a piece of wood that I could stain and call it a day/the desktop.

The bookcases are all loaded up now, but we still have the trim work and the other wall to deal with (read: finding a futon/couch/daybed that we like for that space and clearing out the pile of tools that got moved in here from the nursery. We need a shed people. We need a shed real bad).

So stay tuned for the final word from our office...

The Laundry Room is Done!

Well, for a while. When we last left off it was looking like this:

We still needed to change the light and add some minor storage adjustments. We did just that by making a trip to Home Depot, Container Store, and Amazon (if Amazon had a physical store that magically held all the things it holds online, I'd be in huge trouble).

LB took down the old light bulb and got to work. I find his ability to do electrical updates fascinating because I don't know a DARN thing about it.

And voila. Light from Home Depot installed. This thing had a ton of padding in the light as you can see above, so getting it up there and turned into place was not easy. (Read: LB did it).

We also picked up this bad boy at the Container Store for about $12. If you get one, make sure to check the plastic before you leave the store. Our first one of these was a disaster: cracked and melted all over the place. Thumbs down for terrible customer service when I went to exchange it too. 

I ordered these little fellas off of Amazon, and when they showed up they were kind of green/gold. Nothing a can of spray paint can't fix! 

Bam-- the problem was that the screws were still the weird not quite gold color, so my brilliant LB sprayed a bunch of spray paint into a Solo cup and painted right over the heads of the screws. 

So this is where we are stopping for right now. The two big things left are feeding the duct through the cabinet and getting the butcher block countertop in there. The improvement is beyond words already and I am glad to leave this nook for a while... until I have to do laundry, which never stops. Ever.