Creatives know that a work space is very important to productivity. An optimum work space for me includes color and plenty of stimuli so I don't become bored or zone out.
This setup is a very basic DIY project. The desk is my own; my husband purchased it for me nearly six years ago from a Habitat for Humanity store. I love it because it's huge! And the overhead storage spaces are quite awesome. I'm pretty sure I could no longer function without them.
I wanted to distress-paint the desk turquoise with an antique white undercoat. However, scheduling conflicts did not allow enough time for sanding, the drying of two coats of paint, and distressing (and the outdoor pets probably would have made a mess of the whole process). I also considered that I would grow tired of being enveloped by the color. So I came up with this idea involving just a pop of color. I'm actually glad that painting the desk did not work out. I love the juxtaposition of the wood with the colored background.
My awesome husband had to take this baby apart to get it upstairs. While he put it back together, I painted a five-foot sheet of luon wood purchased from Lowe's. I used cheap 84" curtains that I no longer need as a protective barrier between my project and our wood floors. The paint I already had from the painted chair project (see first post), a turquoise hue with an eggshell finish. I allowed the luon to dry overnight, as sometimes paint can be a bit tacky even after it has dried. My husband then cut off the excess wood and nailed the sheet to the back of the overhead piece.
I'm the type of person who has sticky notes strewn about everywhere. My desk has been known to become quite cluttered. To eliminate that issue, I bought an 18x24 piece of corkboard from a craft store and adhered a simple, sophisticated patterned fabric to it with 3M spray adhesive. Once dry, I sprayed the adhesive liberally on the back side of the cork and applied it to the painted luon.
I'm really interested in steam punk and industrial touches right now, and I love practically everything by Tim Holtz (introduced to me by a craft-junkie friend). I bought a pack of his bronzed medallions with debossed inspirational words and a tiny hole punched out at the top. With some heavy thread I had left over from the hand-made invitation project (see previous post), I knotted a loop in order to hang each medallion on a thumbtack. I randomly hung each medallion on the corkboard. They add extra visual interest, the words help to keep me inspired, and there's still plenty of room for my random sticky notes.
(Now, I know I had to give my husband a lot of credit for this project. We ladies are certainly capable of doing everything in this post ourselves. In fact, I would have in regular circumstances. But as I mentioned in earlier posts, I am expecting(and pretty far along at this point) so we didn't want to take any chances on the health of our baby when my husband was perfectly able to lend a hand.)
This is a very simple project, which serves as a reminder for us not to always over-think things. Sometimes simple is really all you need.
