studio re-do

When we first looked at this house to buy, a huge selling point was a dedicated room for scrapbooking that already had a built in desk.  In the old house I had a little corner of the family room and while I liked having a spot to scrap WITH involvement with the kids in the same room it was kind of pain to keep it tidy. I am NOT a tidy scrapper. Just ask my mother in law. So having a room to spread out and close the door when company comes was a huge draw for me. Unfortunately it has not really worked out that way. The built in desk was very awkward. I am not sure what the previous owners used it for but it was not for scrapping. It was higher than counter height and 50 inches deep. I couldn't use the space effectively and tried standing to scrap (hate that) and tried using a stool but my legs fall asleep. :( I had decided not long after moving in that that would have to change. Now more than ever because I have had a fold up table out in the family room for months so I can be comfortable scrapping.

This week I got a hair up my nose and finally decided to do something about it. Or I just needed and excuse to buy a jig saw (I have wanted one for a while) I decided that my ideal height of the desk needed to be 29 inches and the depth to work with at about 34. I like to have some of my cubbies in front of me for easy access to supplies so I took their depth into the calculations also. So I decided to cut a rectangle out of the desk to have a U workspace. I can put stuff to the sides and in front. then we yanked the desk off the "rails" (for lack of a better term) that were nailed into the wall and tore the rails off. My kids LOVED this part and honestly I just let them do it. After that I measured and cut new rails and mounted them under the desk at my desired height. The desk would never come completely out due to it being wedged against the side walls. Under the desk to the left and right is built in shelving. Nothing to fancy just particle board. But whoever built this desk to begin with did a really good job. Those shelves were NOT coming out. My handy dandy jig saw to the rescue. Since the desk top was lifted I measured the shelves from the ground up to the height of the new rails and cut (awkwardly i might add) the top of the shelves off. I lost a shelf but I am ok with that. Then we lowered the desk (ok hammered the thing down cuz it was soooo tight) and nailed the top to the rails. Then we caulked the edges and corners for a more finished look and then I spackled the area that was damaged from the rails.

This was the desk when I first unpacked after moving in. You can kinda see all the extra unused space behind my scrap cubbies because it was way too deep.

Here is Chris helping me screw in the new railings. I was doing that one myself but burned my thumb badly on the head of a screw. I have the impression of the screw head burnt into my thumb. Yes you can laugh now......

                                        More railing help and top of the shelves after I cut them

The desk after being reinstalled . I tried it out with my scrapping chair and its perfect!! The grey line is where the old railings were and as you can see I had some major spackeling to do.

Tonight I will wipe everything down so we can start painting! I have decided to repaint the desk white (since all my scrap cubbies are white) and paint the room a lighter shade of the blue I painted in Taylor's bedroom. It's a really pretty color but far too bright for my small space, so I am mixing it with white to tone it down a bit. Then its hauling in all my crap and reorganizing!

Me and the boys are very proud of ourselves for doing this alone. I hope the desk doesn't crash down and ruin the good mood.