After working from home for a decade, I finally created a proper desk area for myself and today I’m going to give you a little tour! Here’s my new blue and white desk nook.
Large Tree Print | Gold Frame | Lemon Print | Faux Olive Tree | White Plant Pot | Throw Blanket | Similar Blanket Basket | Blue Desk Chair | Paint for Whitewashed Stone Wall
My home office journey has been a pretty funny one. I’ll have been working from home for a decade this summer and yet I’ve never had a proper home office. Chris has actually been working right alongside me for about 4.5 years as well, so it’s actually pretty amazing that we’ve somehow managed to keep up with our businesses without a real office or even a desk space. We do have a room upstairs that’s set aside to be our office, but there have just been bigger priorities for home renovations because honestly, we’ve always worked just fine from the couch or the dining room table. We have a cabinet in the dining room that hides a lot of our office supplies so we’ve managed just fine. I really started to want at least a real desk a few months ago though. I just thought it would be refreshing to have a dedicated space just for me to work at. Something cheerful and enjoyable for me. And that’s how my new blue and white desk nook came to be!
Where to Put My Desk?
I was determined to find a good spot for a desk and when I started considering the options, I realized that there was an empty wall in our bedroom that would be just perfect, so I started taking measurements and trying to figure out how to make myself a little workspace there. I wanted something sturdy and traditional-looking, with nice drawers and a generous workspace on top. And that’s when I realized that I had a desk exactly like that right in the living room, only we’d never actually used it as a desk, more of a filing cabinet/console table and so I’d forgotten about all of the wonderful workspace possibilities that it possessed.
I had that realization at exactly the right moment because soon after that we were told that all the local schools would be moving to remote learning for a few weeks following the Christmas break. Jack ended up using the desk for his school and it was perfect. So I had a desk and I had a spot for it: Exactly where it already was. Ha.
The Desk Nook: Before
So here’s how the desk nook looked before I gave it a little freshening up.
It was pretty dark over on this side of the room and I definitely had something a little happier in mind for my ideal workspace.
I decided to whitewash the faux stone wall to brighten things up over here first and then add some color with a few other pieces as well. Pretty simple and straightforward and definitely very much unlike some of our bigger months-long projects that we do. I love a big project with big results, but I love instant gratification too!
The New Blue and White Desk Nook Now!
Well, the blue-and-white-ness of this desk area is pretty loose, actually, but still, we’ve got a white desk, a blue chair, and a painting where blue is one of the dominant colors. So I’d say it still counts. 🙂
This is just such a happy little corner of the world for me now.
Chris actually brought the desk back from work one day, way back when he worked in an office, because his office was being refurnished and this desk was going into the trash. I refinished the top and painted the rest of it white, and it’s been with us ever since.
I’ve actually had the lamps for a few years as well. Last year I spray painted them white and I still love how they turned out. So I decided that they can stay too.
The chair, art, and other accessories are all new and they were all chosen just because they make me happy to look at. I want a work area that I look forward to going to and that I’m happy to sit at for long periods of time, and surrounding myself with pretty things definitely helps with that for me.
Some people might like an extra comfy chair or a space for all kinds of techy gadgets, but I really just need a pretty view to make me stay put. Well, and adequate space and organization solutions so I don’t get annoyed while I’m working, but I’m fine with simplicity as far as those last items are concerned.
So that’s my new little work space! I’ve been really loving it so far over the last couple of weeks, especially since I now have a bit of time to spend at it uninterrupted each day while the kids are back in school.
Chris made me a fun little video to with my new, just for fun. 🙂
What have you done to make your workspace at home an enjoyable place to be?
Large Tree Print | Gold Frame | Lemon Print | Faux Olive Tree | White Plant Pot | Throw Blanket | Similar Blanket Basket | Blue Desk Chair | Paint for Whitewashed Stone Wall
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Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.