Using What I Have – My New Makeshift WFH “Desk” and the Most Hilarious IKEA (Non) Hack

Remember when I had this fantasy of that beautiful desk next to this massive A-frame window, looking at the trees full of snow? That fantasy ended this week as it was clear that I was far too “available” to our kids, and they were too distracting to me. The biggest issue was the zoom calls with the soundtrack of Annie BLASTING in the background, so I had to go into the guest room near the wifi and sit on the ground. But don’t worry because the garage was still full of decor and furniture options from the shoot last year, so I pulled something together, but it’s not good YET. Let’s start with “the desk”…

That table has a story. Last year I found it at a thrift store for $20 but it was orange-y and shiny (as shown on the left). We were attempting some fun stories on how to updated thrifted pieces – great idea. I was drawn to the clean lines and Parsons style, and it was solid wood. Also great. It could be a lovely entry table, sofa table, console, etc. So Emily B. and Grace (and myself) were just going to simply strip it to its original pretty wood, so easy. But then it started raining in the middle of our DIYing. So Emily took it to Ross Allen’s shop who gave us shelter. Then, for whatever reason, we didn’t finish it there (oh I think because we wanted to shoot the process), so she brought it back to her backyard where we shot the content (that we now can’t find). Hilariously, it started raining again so we had to wait till the next day to finish. I think Emily B. finished it on her own time inside, I don’t remember BUT THE POINT IS, HOURS – likely a day and a half of time was spent on this table and guess what it turned out to look like? A CHEAP IKEA TABLE. That’s right, hundreds of dollars of someone’s time to make a simple vintage $20 table look like an IKEA TABLE. Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice, but considering it cost so much it was a fail. Keep reading and/or just watch this behind the scenes video (after the ad) if you want more of the story:

We meant to post about it on stories mostly because it’s HILARIOUS that a stupid design DIY blogger spent $300 in time + likely $100 in materials on a $20 “IKEA” table, but never did. I kept the table because thought it would work in the entry up here, but when it was a bit too deep so I shoved it in the garage where it became a shelf for props.

So last week I pulled it out and thought maybe it could be my desk but it’s not desk height. It’s 22″ tall when a normal desk is between 28″ – 30″ tall. BUT I came up with a genius hack (as a reminder I won Design Star for a reason) – you just put each leg on a paint can of your choice. It could be any color, any brand – so much flexibility!

So my options are as follows:

Live with the paint cans and maybe if I wasn’t a blogger/designer I would do that – I’m secretly janky like that, but the legs have fallen off a couple times…Duck tape the legs to each paint can – I love a good metallic accent.