My New (Upcycled) Desk

First of all I have to say Welcome to September! I am feeling very much in the fall spirit, yesterday on my grocery trip I picked up a six pack of my favorite fall beer. For the long Labor Day weekend, the husband and I are going out to the Gorge to a Dave Matthews Band concert this weekend, actually our real reason for going is to see G-Love and Special Sauce, one of our favorite singers/bands, DMB just happens to be the main attraction for most people going. We are going to stay out that way in Yakima and do some wine tasting as well. I think we both need the break, life has been busy. We are still feeling the economic crunch, we'll survive all of it, but the anxiety has been rough at times. A little get-a-way will help with that.

I began training for my new job last night (fall is always go-back-to-work time for teachers)Now that I'm going to be working from home, I have been in the midst of turning my sewing room/guest room into my sewing room/home office...and I need a real desk. Looking around I realized that any of the desks that were the right size and that I liked were typically at least $900, the one I really liked was $1200. That's just not the kind of money that I want to spend on a piece of furniture right now - actually I wouldn't want to spend that kind of money on a desk - ever. Maybe on the right dining room table, but even that wouldn't happen right now. I had about a $500 budget in mind for a new desk, but ask I looked around, anything at that price is going to be made of cheap particle board and wood laminate...basically junky furniture that will have to be replaced in a few years. I want a solid wood desk to have for a very long time. My husband is pretty handy, so even though he's been pretty busy, I thought I might ask him about making my desk...he agreed to and we went looking for material. We ended up at a store up in Bellingham, The Re-Store, that sells recycled parts of torn down buildings. We'd been there a while ago and spotted these cool chunks of gym floor. On our way there the husband mentioned in passing that he could possibly make the desk out of one of the pieces. I latched on to the idea immediately, that's just right up my alley. Of course it was still just an idea, I wanted him to be sure he could do it and that it wouldn't be too difficult or time consuming. So after checking out the pieces they had a bit, he decided to return the next day with his truck to buy a piece of the floor.This piece here measured about 4'x12' and was so heavy that it had to be loaded in the truck by 3 men. See the cool lines on the floor - they were hand painted, when you look closely you can see where the lines aren't completely perfect, the tape must not have been completely straight.He cut the piece right in his truck so it would be easier to unload it single-handedly at his shop.He spent two days at his shop turning the piece of floor into my new desk. Because his shop is not at our house, I only saw pictures at first.Once the desk was home, it had to be sprayed with a laquer, then brought up to my new home office. We also had to get drawer pulls attached. I spent a good amount of yesterday moving all of my things into the desk, it has very smooth, deep drawers, my belongings fit excellently. Before I moved everything into it (and onto the desk top as well), I snapped several pictures. I am incredibly impressed with my new desk, it makes me soooooo happy! Eventually I want to get a new desk chair, but all in good time. The picture below shows how the husband used the original floor boards, with their tounge in groove joints to make new drawer fronts.

The top drawers are shallow, perfect for small items, the middle drawer is fairly deep, and the bottom drawer is the deepest, the right size for files. All the sizes were to my specifications, I love the proportions.

Although he could have sanded the old gym floor lines off, I asked the husband not to, I like the character they give the desk...it's unique. The lines are reminders that this desk had a past life in a gym.

I took this picture to show that there are still sneaker skuffs on the floor - that's what the black streak at the bottom-left of the picture is. Again, that could have been sanded out, but seeing it makes the history of my desk come alive.

On the center drawer there is a red scuff, I guess some athlete had red rubber on their Nike's.

On his way out of the Re-Store, the husband happened to ask what gym the floor had been in. The employees informed him that it had been in Carver Gym at Western Washington University...I've since found this story about the gym floor removal. I love it that my desk had a former life, it's probably the coolest piece of furniture I've ever owned. It seems appropriate that I'm starting my new job as an online instructor with this desk as my main hub...it also makes this transition feel official and special. I've longed for a while now to be able to continue my career while still being able to make my home my center. It's been a good amount of work to turn our former guest room into an appropriate office (and sewing room!) for me...this desk really makes the room! Once again, I know how lucky I am that my spouse thinks of what I want and what is right for me and is willing to do more and put out extra effort so those things happen.

By the way, I am not sure of a final figure on the cost of the desk, some of the materials to make the drawers were things that were already on hand - my husband makes cabinets for the kitchens in the houses he builds, so even though there was an original price tag on some things, they were already purchased and available for this project. The actual piece of flooring was about $100, the charge per square foot was $2 and like I mentioned before the piece was about 4'x12'. I got the drawer pulls at Target - I know I originally said I was planning to go to Anthropologie, but Target had the style that I liked and they were convenient and a good price, about $24 for all seven drawer pulls. There was also the cost of the laquer, some maple plywood for parts of the frame, the tracks that the drawers slide on - they slide so smoothly, I love it! All in all, it was probably about $200-$250. Less than I'd budgeted for a one of a kind desk. Obviously I couldn't have made it by myself, and paying a cabinet maker (that I am not married to) to make it, would have made the whole thing much more expensive. Okay, I love my desk, end of story!