A Perfect Place Within a Place

A desk. The endless possibilities of what can be accomplished at a desk are mind-boggling. You can study there, get your life organized, manage it, compose a letter or a book, hide your things there, make it a sacred space, a self-sufficient place to conquer your world...just to describe how a desk area can be used. For many a desk is almost a home away from home particularly compared the desk at an office, company, or classroom of employment. Often the look of a desk defines who you are or want to be. Good chance some make shifts desks have popped up in your home which, after some time, may need a second look to upgrade as it looks like there will be a work paradigm shift in the future of remote WFH trend. rooms2stay make sure their a desks in every quest room plus free wifi, access to a printer and office supplies.

Painters have their perfectly placed easels in a lighted area, seamstresses have their sewing areas, gardeners have a potting table or shed, so goes a variety of styles and uses for desks much the same way. For the sake of inspiration, it is an organized place to do what you do and with any luck only do “that for which you were meant to do” at your desk. With having Virtual conference calls and classes conducted at home not to mention doing remote office work, you may have been caught short without one. A comfortably situated desk can inspire and trigger the mental juices in the right direction to make you more functional in your home-office scenario instead of it being thrown together or as you plop on the floor with your digital device. Who'd of thunk there would be a concern about the home-office setting and what it looks like (or what we are conveying to the boss, peers, customers) when participating in digital virtual business conferences?

I have are five desks in my home plus the dining room table if need be for an extra workspace to spread out. Three of those desks are in rooms designated for the guests. Hosting traveling commuter, intern, or graduate needing a spot to work remotely, a landing station to begin or end their day. Three of the desks have pull-down covers or doors to hide the desktop leaving things just where you stopped so to pick up where you left off. when getting back to it.

Finding a desk to coordinate a room’s décor was a fun endeavor continuing each room's custom look. Each desk has with the essentials times five (surge protectors, pens, pencils, scissors, scotch tape, paper clips, notepad, a calendar, and post-it notes), local info, a guest information booklet for my bnb guests and at least one piece of desk art. I got used to buying multiple desk supplies from when I had four kids who each had a private workspace in their shared bedrooms.

One guest room has an antique desk originally obtained on consignment from a local business resulting in me liking it so much I ended up buying it. It fits well in the traditional décor in a room called the leaf room (the walls have a opaque painted leaf print, that is barely noticeable. Guest room #, (the Sunflower room, subtle the Kansas state flower theme going on. In this room, is a DIY tv entertainment center converted into a desk area. I painted the interior doors with chalk paint and hung a large bulletin board (also painted with a simple muted sunflower) hanging behind it. The desktop is the tv shelf that pulls out with the doors hinged to pushed into the sides. A desktop organizer holds supplies and a small lamp brightens up the inside. The drawers below are left empty for guest use. The third guest room is called the firefly room (with theme pillows and simple art) has painted matching furniture.

A side note: continuing the idea to repurpose furniture extends to this huge custom-built entertainment center that is the refreshment center for the guests. It is placed in the common landing area between the rooms. I got it at a moving sale with delivery included in the price (no easy deal as the thing weighs over 500 lbs. It took five men and is in two pieces…oh and did I mention a low ceiling up the stairwell?) Check out the amount of space and storage in picture! The claw toed feet had to be trimmed (a pedicure?) to allow a snug fit making it look like it is a custom-built wall unit. Suffice it to say it is now permanent to the house. Granted this is not a desk but it is a workstation of sorts what with the coffee machine, microwave, etc., with a simple sitting area (two bolted down to the floor theater chairs from an old local theater) across from it.

The glass top desk (below) is situated in a room adjacent to the kitchen and is best described as my grand central station. A laptop permanently rests here plus the printer/scanner and a second monitor. I utilize virtual assistance technology with a couple of mini AI's (a google nest, and an Amazon Alexa). This desk is in a public area so I attempt to keep it neat. (Thank goodness for technology, digital files, and the

cloud for storage.) I run my boutique bnbl business from here, plan menus, take bookings, and keep the calendar up to date. I also do curated research when in the study mode. Being situated in the back of the house, I can pretty much see the comings and goings in the house (through a door into the kitchen/dining room area) and a "ring" video device on the front door through the AI and phone technology.

I can't afford a stand-up desk converter usually placed on a desk workspace so I sometimes use the passing window between my kitchen and dining room, a few steps away, that also serves as a breakfast bar with stools. It's the right height for me to stand, moving the laptop there, on those days when I have been sitting too long.

In the my most inner sanctum, in privacy of my bedroom, I have a corner where I placed a small roll top desk. This space is a place me where I spiritually recharge. On top of the desk is an apothecary drawer unit for office supply storage. In the privacy of this room is do keep my personal records, snail-mail, and a tablet synced to my laptop. It is my prayer station. A few floating bookshelves along the sides of the desk make for ready book reference.

Most of what I decorate with is usually repurposed from another use of a bygone time, a hand-me-down, or a desk to be discovered in second hand stores or garage sales and reclaimed for reuse. I find it fun to look at furniture pieces through the lens of how to make it work in more than one way or another that fits my budget and purpose. The other thing I want to mention is this is the “now” in my life but when based on raising four kids I get it that some spaces (like a dining room table) are multifunctional. That’s where boxes (decorative ones with lids, plastic ones with drawers, even trays) are handy to stash things away for the next tabletop need. I did find that separating the kids, with makeshift desk spaces of their own (preferably in their bedrooms), personalized for them, turned out to be the more productive for them. Don't forget to surround desk areas with items to motivate like pictures of family, a plant or flowers, inspiring quotes, a vision board, and other things that bring joy.

The options for desks from standing ones to treadmill desks to traditional ones of various lengths and sizes not to mention constructed material are for the choosing. Once I used two older heavy ornate doors (from a 150 yr old home) placing some glass tops on them and resting the doors on small filing cabinets, make two facing desks. Then there is the consideration of a chair, desk accessories, the essentials, for the desired outcome of working in a comfortable, productive spot. Think about the functionality of what you want to do at your desk, what end product is in your mind to accomplish as the starting point when creating your workspace.

It appears like the WFH trend started during the Pandemic is not going to go away. Some remnant of it is here to stay. You can create a space in your home to slip away to do work that can become a labor of love with a little bit of creativity and planning.

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