Guest DIY post submitted byChristi @ Beachbrights
This is where it all started—the birth of my desk. My husband built this for me, inspired by a design from Better Homes & Gardens (May 2005). I painted it distressed black and used it as my crafting, sewing, and creative workspace. I still love this desk.
This photo shows our Slidell, LA home office. I took these photos for myself before I knew about blogging, so please excuse the casual quality. You’ll also notice there’s no rug in the room—Hurricane Katrina had left its mark. Circa 2005.
Our next home was in Tullahoma, TN. I don’t have a photo of the empty room, but I did find this shot taken before the cabinets were painted. I often buy these stock cabinets from Home Depot and give them a distressed black finish. For this setup I removed the doors from the upper cabinets to create a more open look and to add visual height in the room. The countertop is Formica, custom ordered from Home Depot (or possibly Lowe’s). The black-and-white bins on the top shelves are actually white bins decorated with black electrical tape in a plaid pattern. Notice the rug now in place—the desk still looks fantastic. Circa 2006.
Fast forward to the present day: we move a lot, so my furnishings have become a bit of a hodgepodge. What worked beautifully in one house doesn’t always translate to the next. In my current home office I had to adapt this large bookshelf arrangement to make everything fit. I traded the distressed black for brown to blend with the new built-ins. I sewed a tailored table cover and skirt, then had a piece of glass cut to fit the tabletop. Voila—function and style. It makes the desk work in this space, and more importantly, it makes me feel like it works. Circa 2007.
So that’s the story of the little desk that kept reinventing itself. Who says I don’t recycle?