Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Turning a Closet into a Desk


When it comes to ideas for utilizing space, I think the idea of
turning a closet into a desk is a fantastic one.  I especially love
this design from Country Living.  The color scheme is absolutely
gorgeous and I adore the wallpaper in the background.  What a 
great way to give the space a punch with a pattern on the wall.
Wall paper is from GrahamBrown.com


This was what the closet looked like prior to the redesign.  
You'll notice the doors on this closet are very standard to
many modern homes and track homes.

In this design, this wonderful paint was used on the inside 
of the doors and it would make sense to paint the ceiling and
walls inside the closet (with the exception of the wallpapered
wall.)  I love that the designer used a pegboard (Home Depot)
for the inside of the closet door.  Framing the pegboard with 
molding makes it look polished and chic.  




I love that a miniature chandelier was used in the design.  Why
not indeed?  There are so many glamorous lamp pendants out 
there, why not use one to punch up the design factor.  
LampsPlus.com is a great resource along with many other 
stores.



In the design, a pair of very standard file cabinets are used.
This set of cabinets are from Staples but any file cabinets
of this size from Ikea or elsewhere would work too.  You
can choose stationary cabinets or add on rollers as it is in
this case for movement.



In this design, durable Krylon paint with a Satin finish
was used to spray paint the filing cabinets a similar color
to the paint used on the inside of the closet doors.  It's such
an easy way to customize and spruce up off the shelf office
furniture.  Make sure you choose a suitable spray point for
metal finishes in this case.

The table top is a very simple matter of MDF board cut to fit
the length of the file cabinets.  You can paint it any color you
want and in this case white is used to match the color of the
shelves above the desk (Ikea shelves are used in this design.)

Adding a fun rug under the chair gives a further
punch of color and really makes the area feel
like an office space.


The wicker office chair is also from Ikea.  I love how the doors open
 up to serve as the "side walls" of this office space.  It makes the space 
feel cozy.  

The beauty of this space is that it's designed with completely off the 
shelf products with much of the customization done with paint.  This 
allows anyone to really turn a closet into a gorgeous desk space quite 
cheaply.  The DIY elements of this design are simple enough that 
anyone (including me which I'm not very handy) can do it.  

Photos from Country Living