Home Sweet (re)Home: A New Desk

I recently (ish) moved into a new place and I'm slowly trying to make it more homey. The house looks smaller on the outside (Doctor Who anyone?) but it's got a surprising amount of space on the inside. The master bedroom is particularly huge, which is why I have my desk in the bedroom. I used to have one of these (just the desk in the middle):

Trinity Desk

It's not terrible. But looking back on it, it didn't make much sense to get that style. First, I had a laptop. What am I supposed to do with that monitor stand? (I ended up using it for my inbox/outbox (read: piles of paper)) I put my printer where the computer is supposed to go, I had pens and things on the keyboard tray, and who knows what I put on the left side. Second, it's tempered glass. Why, oh why, would I ever get a tempered glass desk for college? You know how many times I have moved since I got this desk? Five. I've had to take this desk apart and put it back together five times, making sure all of those glass pieces don't break. So overall, a fairly impractical purchase, but it was pretty at the time, and I tend to buy a lot of things because they are pretty. But it served it's purpose, until now.

Enter the 27" iMac.

Do I really need a picture? I have the trackpad, by the way, not the magic mouse.

A beautiful and huge (you should see the box) monitor with no separate computer piece to it. Now I tried to put this on my old desk, which again, rendered the monitor and computer stand useless. I could finally use the keyboard tray for it's intended purpose, but it was too low since the iMac display sits pretty high off the desk surface. The screen was also way too close to my face since I couldn't push it all the way back because of the monitor stand. Guys, I think it's time for a new desk.

I wanted something simple - no keyboard tray, minimal legs, etc. I love love love this desk from Anthropologie:

Dewlyn Desk

But for $700 (it's on sale!) I couldn't justify the purchase. I mean, I just bought an iMac, so there goes my everything budget. I had this idea that I should just find legs that I like and find a top that I like and put it together. I was looking at IKEA at all the different desks, so it was pretty easy to do that. First I bought these legs, which for some reason they didn't have in any of the California IKEAs so I had to ship them.

Lerberg Legs

They are kind of a backwards version of the Anthropolgie desk legs, or so I tell myself. Then I tried to figure out what I wanted for the top. Maybe I could find an old door and lay it on top. Or maybe pallets, everyone is doing something with pallets these days. Or I could just make that pine top myself with a quick trip to Home Depot, ignoring that I don't have any of the tools or space to make a out of large pieces of lumber.

Eventually I settled on this top from IKEA.

Vika Amon Table Top

I know I essentially just made this desk from IKEA.

My new desk

Which I didn't see until after I had bought the pieces separately. I knew I wanted a dark top because I had white legs, and for the amount of effort and money I was willing to spend, IKEA was the way to go. Someday I'd like to make my own desk, with real wood and pretty metal legs, but I like this one as well.

So there it is. I'm a little bit closer to making the house that I'm renting my home. I plan on featuring other parts of the house in future Home Sweet (re)Home segments (don't I sound official?) like what I want to do with the bed, and the windows, and the bathroom...and little things here and there that make the house a little homier.