Rustic Homework Desk

Summer is officially over and my kids are back to school. Well, they went back last week already, but I needed a week to get my house back in order. With the Mr. at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business Executive Program, it was a long summer of single parenting with a lot of Lord of the Flies shenanigans happening. For instance, someone spilled an entire bottle of honey in the back of the pantry and just rearranged some things to cover it up rather than actually cleaning it up. Clearly, I wasn’t spending enough time hiding out from my kids in there with my glass of wine and trusty bag of chocolate chips, as it took me several weeks to notice. Or I just ordered pizza too frequently. Either way, the house is back in order (mostly), the kids are back in school, and the Mr. is back home safe and sound with us!

Which means that I’m ready to get back to work here on the blog. I have a few fun projects happening in various stages, but I thought I would dip my toe back in the blogging water with a fun little DIY project I just completed.

I’ve been working on a few changes in my kids’ rooms and I did a little desk switcheroo from one to the other as my daughter’s room is getting an overhaul (wallpapering is on my agenda this week). She has been trying to convince us that at 11 she has outgrown her twin size bed (although our 8-year-old is almost bigger than her, her nickname around here is Mighty Mite, so trust me when I say she is just fine in the twin), and when we got a new bed for our master last winter I promised we would move the old one down to her room eventually.

With that, I realized it would be a bit crowded with her desk in there, so we decided to add it to my son’s room instead. The teal legs and fuzzy ball chair weren’t exactly my little guy’s taste. Here’s what it looked like in my daughter’s room.

I broke out the spray paint and gave the legs a new coat of matte black. I also sanded down the top and stained it a darker color to match the world traveler/pirate vibe in his room better. It was also a little too big for the space. It hit the door trim to his bathroom, so I dusted off my power tools and used my circular saw to cut the sides down by an inch on each side.

Now, it looks like it was made for this little corner. I also added this great leather desk chair. It’s adjustable so it’s a little higher for his 8-year-old self, but I know with a classic piece like this that it will grow with him. He was so cute plopping his feet up on the desk proclaiming to be ‘just like dad at work.” Apparently, he has grand visions of the Mr. hanging out all day on the phone with his feet up.

I have had this sailboat print for a long time that Melissa Lyons sent me, and I hung onto it until I had the perfect spot for it. It fits in so well in his room.

I added a few more world traveler type accessories and it really feels more grown up in here. We designed this pirate room together when he was 5 to be easily flexible to swap items out as he grows. I’m happy to report with just these few updates it really feels more like an 8-year-old space. He used to have a locker here (see below) that was so fun, but he really didn’t store anything in it. This feels like a much better use of his room and he has spent a lot of time drawing and designing inventions here already!

Oh and here is a little sneak peek into his bathroom. I haven’t really shared this on the blog before. I’ve been hunting for some wallpaper or tile or something to finish this space off since we moved in, and I haven’t figured it out yet. Stay tuned!

Oh and I always get questions about where all my kids’ stuff is or how their rooms stay organized. One thing we planned out with their rooms being in the basement was they could have nice large walk in closets to shove all the toys and everything into. Here is a snap of his semi-organized closet.

Thanks again for being patient with me taking the summer slow over here on the blog. It was great to just soak up the time with my kids and enjoy, but it feels great to getting back into the routine again!

You can read more about my son’s room here.

And more about my daughter’s room here.

SOURCE LIST: (Contains affiliate links)

Walls – Functional Gray by Sherwin Williams

Floors – Armstrong Forestry Mix white washed laminate

Rug – old from West Elm here is similar one

Bed – garage sale find, similar one here

Bedspread – Serena and Lily, they don’t carry the exact one but this is similar

Shelf – DIY

Desk – Hobby Lobby

Leather Chair – find it here

Hourglass – find it here

Globe – flea market find

Wander pillow – find it here

Star pillow – DIY

Octopus – find it here

Black extendable lamp – find it here

Navy desk lamp – find it here

Light fixture – find it here

Sailboat print – Melissa Lyon Art

Nightstand – HomeGoods find, similar here