Back to School Series – Desk Organization
This summer I have been working on giving my kids’ rooms a re-fresh. We had a few different needs come up in our house that led to all these little changes. Before, our two oldest shared 2 built-in desks in the family room. It came time to give my oldest his own desk space in his room. He had the perfect nook for a built-in desk. About this same time our youngest moved out of her crib {big milestone = sad day}. Her room is really tiny. Like if it didn’t have a closet it might be considered one, tiny. We opted for a built-in bed/bookshelf/nightstand in there. The first project was moving my son out of the family room and moving my 2.5yr. in.
I had the desk top re-painted. I’ve had to do this twice in the last 3 years which made me decide to add the glass top to protect the desk. The girls and I will pick out fabric or paper to line it for some color and pattern. Our books will be replaced with children’s books and art. The shared drawers down the middle contain art supplies, coloring books, + paper doll sets. Inside the upper right cabinet are family games. The upper left cabinet contains, extra printer paper, ink cartridges, photo paper, and other desk supplies. The bulletin boards are from Ballard & Designs. I love the clean modern look of these while also adding the rustic feel and texture. The chairs are from Ikea. They come in a variety of fun colors and are so affordable. Just a few more personal touches and the girls will be all set for the new school year!
When designing my son’s built-in desk, it was becoming clear to me that the rest of his room still looked like it did when we bought all his little boy furniture when he turned 2! It was time for a refresh for him. I wanted the room to reflect him today, but also be able to grown with him as he approaches middle school and beyond.
The main focus on this room was to add a built-in desk in the nook opposite this wall. We designed one that had lots of shelving for all his trophies and collections that were piling up everywhere before. The room was painted a sandy white color. The trim and built-in are Decorator’s White by Benjamin Moore.
The shelving is all adjustable. There is great storage in all the drawers too. The desk is also covered with glass. I added some large grommets from the hardware store as spacers between the glass and desk to give it a slightly industrial look. My son loves to organize and is really particular about how his things are displayed, as you can imagine he had a field day filling these shelves.
The desk was designed with a large bulletin board in the center. It’s 36 x 36. Enough for pinning up class photos, ribbons earned, magazine tear outs of his favorite sports teams + artwork. I was hoping to find a bulletin board similar to the one I used for the girls’ desk, but couldn’t find one large enough for that space. I had seen all sorts of DIY fabric bulletin boards and decided to give it a try myself. It turned out pretty good for my first DIY project like this.
I had some sounding board cut to size at the Home Depot, bought the burlap at Joann’s, and found a super easy alternative to using upholstery nail heads. Instead of using individual nail heads which would have been extremely time consuming measuring each one and keeping them all evenly spaced and perfectly in line with each other, I found a product which essentially is a roll of faux nail heads all connected. Every few nail heads is attached to the board. It really simplified the project for me. This bulletin board was then mounted to the wall in the built-in. Another example and useful tutorial on creating a DIY Burlap Bulletin Board can be found on Itsoverflowing.com.
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LOVE LOVE LOVE. When I have a free second i’m going to make one for each of my boys!! xox
I can help! It will cost about $30 for both and take you less than an hour!
Thanks so much for sharing this Domonique….it turned out FABULOUS! XO, Aimee
Will you help me make one too, please? Where did you find the roll of nail heads? Joann’s?
Yes. Joanns for the burlap and nailheads. Happy to help.
Love this room. Did u build the bookcases from scratch?
Hi! Both the bookcases in the family room and in my son’s room were designed by me and my cabinet maker. I did not build them myself. Thank you for taking the time to comment. I am hoping to do a follow-up post on my son’s room. Check back soon!
Where did you get the lower cabinets from, i have been looking for something like this for a while.
Hi Jenna, both sets of lower cabinetry I custom designed with a cabinet maker.
I absolutely love our new burlap bulletin boards. Best idea, Domonique. Thank you! No more tape. No more art work that has fallen to the floor. Everyone is organized. Amazing idea.
So happy it turned out great for you Staci! Send me a pic when you have a minute, would love to see them.
Where is the desk from? Beautiful work.
Hi Rebecca, I worked with cabinet makers to design both the top double desk workspace and the desk and built-ins in my son’s room. I’m glad you like them. Thank you!!
Where did you buy the desk? What brand is it? I understand that the cabinets above it were custom made, but the desk itself is what I’m asking about.
Thanks!,
kate
All the cabinetry is custom made, uppers and lowers.
Did you have the built in desk built? I can’t seem to find any desk that I want for my office so i’m considering having someone build me a desk along my back wall like this one? If so who did you call to get this built
Hi Victoria, I too was at a loss when looking for the right desk. I ended up contracting a cabinet maker and designing it with him for this space. You will definitely get exactly what you need for your space that way. good luck! and thank you for your comment.
Do you have the DIY tutorial on how to build the actual desk, shelves and drawers?
The desk, shelves and drawers were custom designed and built by a cabinet maker.
Hi Domonique,
Beautiful work on your sons desk. I am trying to do something similar for my kids, converting our never used dining room into a study space. I am hoping you can share the dimensions of the three sections of your sons desk (left bottom, middle and right), depth of shelve and whether those bottom drawers can be used for filing… Would love to share with my cabinet maker. Thank you!
Thank you Cindy! The lower left and right sections are 17.25″ overall with a drawer front width of 15.5″ the center chair opening is 36″ the bottom two drawers are file drawers and the shelf depth is 11″. I hope that helps! Send me a pic of the finished product or tag us on social media.
Beautiful work! I am hoping you can share the dimensions of your sons desk… I would love to share them with my cabinetmaker. We are trying to do something similar and are never use dining room to convert it into a study space. Thanks and
Looks incredible! I’m actually curious on the built in measurements too. How deep is the desk (not width). Are they 24″ deep like a kitchen cabinet? Thank you so much!!! I’m totally making a burlap bulletin board for mine too. Love that.
Hi! Thank you. Yes, the desk is 24″ deep. Hope that helps.
I’m afraid to ask how much this cost to build. Just showed it to my husband and going to try it.
Hi, I see that you used “sounding board” for the bulletin board. I did a search on Homedepot.com and didn’t see anything. What is sounding board? I want to make a really large bulletin board and hoping to find something.
Hi Anne! The material is similar to a very thick foam board. I bought it right off their shelves and asked them to cut to my dimensions. Good Luck and send me a pic of the finished product!