When I moved to Nevada from Iowa, I moved in with my sister and her husband. The plan was for me to just live with them to help Becca until she had her baby (they're both archaeologists and Sandy has to go out of town a lot for surveys). Luckily, they're both super gracious and I've been crashing at their house for about a year and a half now. It's especially nice during times like this because I have no job and would be hard core freaking out (instead of the regular kind of freaking out) if I had rent to pay as well.
The problem with living in someone else's house is a lack of space. My bedroom doubles as my workshop and triples as a storage center for my Etsy inventory. Over the past few years, I've been experimenting with the space, trying to maximize my storage/work space.
I had this storage cube unit in another part of the unit, not utilizing the top of it at all. I decided to move it and use it as a computer desk so the other desk in my room could be used solely for sewing. It worked alright at first and slowly went downhill.
As you can see, the chair just hangs out in the middle of the floor because it can't be pushed underneath (it can't be pushed underneath my other desk either). That also means that I couldn't put my legs underneath and it was very awkward to write at. Another problem was that it kept coming apart. Any pressure put on the top would cause pieces to come apart/ bend the top. Annoying.
Another problem was this bookcase. Lots of storage potential, but a lot of odd things that take up space. I had my I giant printer, silhouette, and shipping supplies mixed in with a bunch of random items.
SOLUTION!
Get rid of those annoying storage cubes and make myself a desk. AND knock out #12 on my 35 before 28 list!
The space to be filled is an odd measurement. Not many desks are available in a 14" x 70" size and I didn't think I'd be able to afford them if they did. Luckily, my dad had some extra wood from some of his projects that I got to use.
For this project, I used 1 piece of wood that I cut down to 70"- it was already 14.5" wide, these Ikea table legs, and some 5/8" screws from Lowe's. That's it. This 10 minute/ $25 project gave me about twice the desk space + extra floor space because now I can slide my chair underneath.
(just because it's bigger doesn't mean it any less messy)
I turned the bookcase so it was against the other wall and moved the silhouette machine off of it. I now have all of my inventory, shipping supplies, and printer all in one semi organized spot.
I still need to figure out another way to store my inventory but that's another storage diy for another day.






