Instant Workspace

So, you may recall from my entry remodel post that I had this awkward space in between our couch and the railing. 

Here is a better look at this useless clutter zone.

I had a dream to use this little strip of space for a desk area.  Up until now, my laptop lived here:

Sup, breast pump?  Obviously, this was totally unacceptable for a work area.  As a photographer, I spend hours on my laptop editing, and this setup was uncomfortable at best.  I also had the bad habit of just setting mail, paperwork to be filed, and my external hard drives right there on the couch.  It was awful!

I also had all my lenses and cameras just sitting on our Ikea bookshelves surrounding the tv.  It looked so messy.

My plan was to replace the console table with a small desk, and move all this stuff over to the desk area.  This was not easy, since the desks I liked were much wider than the 40ish inches I had in the space.  Then, I found this simple 42″ desk at World Market, and took advantage of a sale.

It was sort of hard to put together, because the metal is hand forged and the holes didn’t exactly match up.  But, I love the look and it’s sturdy after assembly.  It was already functioning better to have a desk in this area immediately after I put it together.

Then, I looked to the wall above.  I had two acrylic shelves from CB2 that I had planned on staggering over a dresser in the guest room.  After I came back to reality and admitted that the room was way too small to fit even the tiniest dresser, they hid under the bed until now.  They came with silver screws, but I used some black ones I had laying around, I think they look so great!

These are 4 foot and 2 foot shelves, so I had to place the longer one past the width of the desk.  I thought I would hate that, but I actually don’t mind.  It creates the illusion of a wider area, and also frames the lamp nicely.  They are also sturdy enough to hold my heavy lenses!

And I wanted to reuse my beloved pineapple lamp, so I got a new shade and it looks pretty good here.  Here is the final space:

I’m so in love with this!  There is pretty much a place for everything.  It is beyond thrilling to have my lenses look beautiful, and be easy for me to grab whenever I’m heading out to a photo session.  I even had enough space for my speedlight!

The top shelf mostly holds framed prints, because I love some good inspiration while I’m working.  I chose images of my boys that are cute (obviously) but also showcase great lighting, composition, or post processing.  I plan to rotate them out as they get bigger. 

The top shelf also holds my client ‘Thank You’ cards I include with print orders, and this little white box I found at Homegoods keeps my battery charger, tripod mount, and a couple older memory cards that I don’t use often. 

Since the colors in my branding are white, charcoal, and teal/aqua, I was pretty excited when Ashford came home from school with the watercolor art you see framed here.  I found the frame at Homegoods, ripped out the inspirational ‘saying’ that it was meant to hold, and put his painting in.  The aqua/mint box frame in the middle was also found at Homegoods.  The clock is from Target.

Let’s talk about the stag head.  Last year during Black Friday, whitefauxtaxidermy.com had their annual sale.  I bought a huge rhino head for my brother, and couldn’t help but snap up ‘Alfred’ for half off for myself.  After I got the shipment, I was sort of at a loss with where to hang him.  Luckily, he looks majestic here, and wears a wooden camera toy my kids hardly ever look at.  I still have some anxiety about him crashing down when the door slams and destroying my laptop and lenses, but I have a heavy duty anchor back there, and I can’t live my life in fear. 

Since I needed a desk with small width, pretty much none offered drawers.  I didn’t really mind, because I find that drawers in tight spaces just get cluttered and hard to find things in the back.  I measured the openings of the shelves, and found that CB2 had a wool storage box that had the exact same dimensions. 

It holds additional hard drives, referral cards, and my supplies for mailing prints to clients.  It was not cheap, but it’s beautiful quality, and I had the best customer service from the store.  Quick story – I ordered the box for pickup at the Chicago store because it’s out of stock online, then quickly realized I was never ever going to be able to drive an hour to the city to get it…they shipped it from the store to me, for free.  Awesome!

The basket on the top shelf was a Michaels find, and it has a homemade camera cushion created with a $3 Target infinity scarf wrapped around a dish towel.  I do not sew, people!