I think I can speak for just about everybody when I say that I’m pretty sick of the #WFH life. I miss my colleagues. I miss afternoon walks to Bitty and Beaus on the Annapolis dock. I miss taking calls while looking out on College Creek. Sigh, I miss it.
Unfortunately I think the current reality isn’t going to change for a lot of us. Even when things go back to normal, I can see a lot of work places allowing/encouraging working from home to cut costs. And honestly? I think it makes sense.
A little background about me is that working from home is my semi-norm under normal circumstances. I would go to the office on Mondays and Thursdays and work from my dining room table the other days. When we switched to full working from home, I completely underestimated how much of an adjustment it would be. It wasn’t too far in to the new routine that I realized I desperately needed a dedicated work space.
I knew I wanted my work space to not be in my bedroom and that was pretty much the only other option here, aside from a hall closet.. And no. No closets. So, I knew if I was going to make the space, I was going to have to be creative.
Today I’ll share the process I took to make the space when I honestly thought I didn’t have any. I hope you find it helpful!
Rearrange your room.
First, I had to reconfigure my living room to an open space. I used to have my couch and loveseat in an L shape with the TV on the other side of the room. That took up way more room than having them face each other like they are now.
I didn’t used to utilize the space in front of the hallway, but now I am. Get creative with your space and think outside the box. You just might figure out a way to open up some space.
When things opened up, I knew a corner desk was a must. They take up the least amount of space so opening up a corner to accommodate one was a no-brainer.
Stick with getting a small desk.
So, I ordered this desk from Walmart for $55 but it’s unfortunately out of stock. I found a few similar desks that are similar in size and price to the one I got, and really like them all! I linked the Amazon page to each of the images below if you’d like to check them out.
The last one is $30ish, which is nuts!
This is important: Go with the cheapest desk that you can tolerate the shape of but don’t worry about the color! We’ll get to that in a minute… Also make sure you’re paying attention to the dimensions.
Sweet talk someone to assemble your desk for you.
I kind of really abhor assembling furniture and furniture on the cheaper side tends to be a pain in the arse. Jim was a sweetie and assembled my desk for me until 2 AM on Good Friday and here’s what it looked like when it was all done!
Pretty structure but not pretty color. At all. Right?
Get painting!
If you like the way your desk looks the way it is, good for you! You’re good to go. If, in the highly likely chance that you don’t, it’s time to pretty it up. The desk was a beast to paint, but I’m SO glad I did.
I used THIS chalk paint that I just so happened to have on hand from when I painted my fake fireplace, coffee table and dining table. See?
So, when I say that it’s OK to paint plywood, cheap waxy furniture from China, I’m saying you’ll eventually get color on it but it will take some patience. I had to put seemingly a million layers of paint on because it kept running off. It was annoying to say the least, but I was not about to spend time sanding the shine off a $55 desk, ya know? So, after some patience, I finally got it to stick. If I could do it over again, I’d probably use a primer.
Choose a multi-purpose chair
OK, here’s where the small space/big space difference comes in to play. You’ll notice I didn’t tell you to buy a desk chair. Why? Because it would be taking up unnecessary space. I use a dining chair for both work as well as eating. Every morning, I put the chair at the desk. When I’m done working for the day, I move it back to the dining table. It’s nice because it’s a little ceremony of sorts that both starts and ends my work day.
Dress up your new space
With Home Goods being closed at the moment (sniffle sniffle), I didn’t get a chance to buy new things for my desk, so I moved some things around. I do love how the table lamp looks there. I also put some fake flowers in a vase I got in the Netherlands on there, a coaster for my coffee, and a wireless charger that I can’t live without. I also like to keep a couple of inspiring books on my desk that I can perhaps get a morsel or two from when I need a break from my computer screen.
I can’t even begin to tell you what a difference having a dedicated work space is, and it’s a space I never knew I needed so badly! If you’re sick of working at your dining room table, maybe now is the time to consider making yourself a small workspace of your own!
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This is such a GREAT post! As someone who is now working from home I can totally resonate with your struggles! If I wasn’t moving in 4 weeks I would totally make a desk today! 🙂
Why thank you, Gentry :). Maybe paint a desk in your new space…? Good luck with the move!