Custom Burgundy Desk & Floating Shelf
If a year of lockdowns and working from home taught me anything, it’s that having furniture in different rooms that can do double-duty makes Zoom calls a heck of a lot simpler. I don’t love the look of the ‘home office’ and much prefer when things can be packed away neatly at the end of the day (or at least over the weekend) so when we were planning the layout of each of the rooms in the apartment we knew that we’d need a couple of work spaces. The bedroom is a great size and shape for working in, with enough space in the ‘nook’ to almost be a separate room. I wasn’t too keen on a big desk in the bedroom, as the main wall of the nook is the first thing we see when we wake up each morning, as it’s directly opposite the foot of the bed. I had been looking into floating desks, and also console tables that could move around where we needed it.
When we tackled the hallway, we took down the heavy shelf that had been hanging in the entryway, used for hat storage with hooks beneath. Although it isn’t 100% my taste, it was built well and was in good condition, and would have been a waste to get rid of. Checking the measurements, it was the perfect size for the wall in the bedroom — the length was perfect, anyway, the depth was just a little too shallow to use as a desk. Meanwhile, we were working on the kitchen and removed a display cabinet that had been standing on the kitchen counter. The cabinet was another example of ‘not my taste’ but still good quality. While I was looking at the cabinet turned on its side, I realised it was the shape I’d been looking for in a console desk for the bedroom. After measuring and checking the construction, we figured out that it could work really well in the bedroom if it would be sturdy enough as a desk.
We took two side panels from the cabinet and built essentially a second layer on the U-shape of the cabinet frame, adding more stability. We purchased 4 small metal brackets to screw to the underside to keep it rigid, and then I got to painting! I chose a rich burgundy for the outer colour and used leftover powder pink from the pocket doors to paint the inner surface. A few coats later and we had one very cute desk! I painted the shelf from the hallway sky blue (the same colour as the bedroom walls) and the underside the same burgundy as the desk — I chose these colours for two reasons; firstly, so the shelf would blend into the waller better and feel a little lighter by being split into a light and dark colour, and secondly, so the base colour would blend into the desk when the desk was nestled below it. Because the widths of the shelf and the desk are different, the desk protrudes a little further than is ideal for a ‘perfect nest’, but is the right width to be able to work at comfortably on a laptop.
The desk can sit happily under the shelf over the weekends, and on weekdays can be turned perpendicular so the person working in the bedroom gets to look out the window, and the people on the other size of the Zoom call don’t have to look at our bed. Win-win!
I love that this project repurposed some big pieces that we would have otherwise had to waste, and that it was a low cost but high visual impact result. The furniture looks like it’s meant to be in the room now - rather than a hastily set up desk and chair. The console table can be moved around the apartment too, and might eventually end up behind the sofa in the living room, or as a second table in the studio. I love that it’s transportable and adaptable to different scenarios!
