carving out a small workspace in our rental
We got ourselves a little IKEA desk this week. We’ve been purging (as one does at the start of a new year) and this little spot in between our entryway, living room, and dining area magically opened up. The style blogger in me wanted to leave it blank so I could use it as a background for outfit photos. But the pragmatic person who’s witnessed her husband work from the couch and the floor and the tiny kitchen table and even the bedroom over the last nine months of this pandemic knew a desk would be invaluable.
I’ll admit creating a work from home space was a dream come true for me too. Creating content for this blog (and my sorely neglected YouTube channel) has been a struggle ever since shelter in place took hold. The thing is, my “office” existed in the many coffee shops of my city. I would pack up my things after dinner and work until closing time at least once a week. It was my time to zone into work, to get a dose of that focused flow I love yet rarely experience in the daily routine as a parent. Needless to say, that little luxury went out the window in 2020.
Ever since we moved in in June, we’d been living with all of our office supplies scattered in different places over our apartment. The pens lived in an old cup on the dryer, as did some of my many, many notebooks. The camera bounced around from my nightstand to the top of our hutch to the sideboard under our TV. Our books lived in purgatory aka boxes in the bedroom closet. 80% of the time I couldn’t find my mouse (yes, I use a mouse and absolutely prefer it to using the track pad because I’m an elder millennial).
We could feel that we needed a dedicated workspace in our home, but it just didn’t seem like a realistic option.
Enter this little patch of wall and carpet.
Once we moved the bins holding our Christmas decorations into my parent’s backyard storage unit and finally got the donation bags out of our entryway, we realized there was this small but usable area right under our noses. We left it empty for a week and I contemplated how to use the space.
As I was chatting away on my IG Story last week, I shared these two slides to show what my gut was telling me to do. I hadn’t looked at any small space workspace inspiration, I just exercised a little bit of imagination, which isn’t usually my default. Usually, I’m the girl scouring Pinterest trying to find inspiration that looks like it could work in my home (my gallery wall layout is literally inspired by a photo I saw on Pinterest). I’m slowly learning to trust my gut, though! Because it turns out that no one on the internet knows your home like you do. Pinterest can’t help me solve the problem of where to possibly fit a desk in my two bedroom apartment that I share with my husband, toddler, and infant. Only I know what roles my space has to fill.
Once I had a vision of what I wanted for this corner, I started looking for a desk that wouldn’t eat into the walkway too much. I was looking at a small wall mounted desk on the IKEA app when I randomly hit the home button. Bam. There it was! The exact desk shape I was looking for in a styled, catalog looking photo. I showed my husband, looked to see if it was in stock (it was) and we made the plan to get the desk.
Aside from the desk and that cute plant I couldn’t pass up buying, nothing you see on those shelves is new. Even the shelves! We’ve had those since our studio days when we put them up in the kitchen as open storage.
There’s a certain kind of satisfaction in finding new ways to use/display the things I love and have intentionally brought into our home! The plan is to replace the Taylor Swift record with a square cork board covered with some of our Instax photos. I’m really into finding ways to decorate with our family photos right now and I think using our instant film photos will bring a nice, homey touch to our workspace.
In a time where so much feels out of control, it’s nice to look at this spot in our home and feel peace. And it’s really nice to share this simple space with you all!
PS: I’ve linked what I could find below for you in case you’re in the market for some new shelves or decor. These are affiliate links and they don’t change the price of anything you may buy, but your clicks do help support my writing and sharing of content that’s free of those annoying ads that clog up your screen. 💚
