Before & After: Adding Character to Furniture
I’m a fan of working with what we’ve already got. It’s usually better for our wallets, better for the planet, and a way of making our homes look and feel our own.
A wobbly vintage rolling cart might just need a replacement wheel to be functional.
A broken planter might be useful when transformed into the perfect frog (or fairy) house on the stoop.
And a bland piece of furniture might just need a few reclaimed and repurposed accents to achieve its true character.
Our fold-away storage desk was one such piece:
This desk is perfect for our needs here in the cottage. It functions as an ample workspace when open, a narrow and unobtrusive console with storage when closed, it offers a standing-height tabletop when desired, and it’s almost the perfect width for this pocket-door frame-filled wall, which can’t support any substantial weight on its own.
But there was just no getting around the fact that it looked new and stale compared to pretty much anything else in our little home. The most obvious way to add character would be to paint it, but not a day has gone by since we installed this piece when it hasn’t been a heavily relied-upon workhorse for my small business. So rather than paint it — at least for now — I opted to work with materials we already had here at home in order to give the desk a beating heart.
The brushed nickel nobs got a (hastily applied) coat of leftover textured bronze spray paint. The interior cubby received a remnant piece of peel + stick wallpaper from Rebel Walls, a scrap from our closet makeover. The exterior became a touch of extra book storage thanks to a clever, made-to-order suspended system that we were gifted upon moving in. Lastly, we layered the top shelf with a reclaimed wood board that was once the tabletop of narrow kitchen island from one of our previous homes.
While the end result isn’t the century-aged, eco-friendliest antique of my dreams, it is a highly usable, purposefully chosen, and mindfully modified desk that I plan to use for years to come.
If you already have newer furnishings for one reason or another, consider adding a dash of reclaimed materials to them in one or more ways. Vintage hinges, door knobs and pulls can work wonders. Similarly, consoles, countertop segments, accent pieces, and more can be enhanced when securely topped with a layer of repurposed or reclaimed materials, sized to your specifications. Additionally, paint, wallpaper, and secondhand accents can further transform a flavorless piece into a story-rich heirloom.
Our Small, Concealed, Home-Office
I designed nearly every space in this cottage to multitask. While we have ~900 square feet to enjoy (a generous amount that’s more than twice the size of our previous home), what makes it work well for our family of two adults, 2 kids, 2 pups and 1 small business is the adaptability and versatility of most zones.
In our household, we’re no strangers to pop-up and chameleonic workspaces— both due to necessity and personal preference. I’m partial to starting weekdays at my home-office with 5-10 minutes spent establishing a little area in which to work. It feels like a playful creative warmup, and a way to keep the setting and my daily tasks from feeling redundant. Still, no matter where I set up shop for the day — the porch, at a folding table by the fire, etc. — it’s important for me to have a dedicated area in which to organize everything Adam and I need to keep our business and household administrative duties running efficiently.
Initially I’d planned for that dedicated area to be in a corner of our bedroom, with the help of a slim, wall-mounted folding desk that had just enough storage for the essentials. However, the wall on which I’d intended to mount the desk turned out to be unable to accommodate the weight, as it merely covers one of our oversized, double-pocket doors, with no additional bracing or framing built in place… a design mistake that’s on me.
Thankfully we were able to pivot in a way that I believe actually turned out for the better. The bedroom remains a space most used at night, whereas the office is now situated in the thoroughfare straddling the (multitasking) living room and (multitasking) dining area.
The folding-top desk we selected has a slim enough footprint to allow for easy flow of traffic whether the desktop is closed or opened, and the built-in storage is more than we’d planned for, so it has provided us with bonus storage for boxier items like board games, as well as some art supplies for the kids.
We’d not intended to buy many new furnishings, as we prefer to shop second-hand, but after a long search we kept returning to this design. We customized the piece a bit, changing the pulls, adding suspended book storage, and layering a reclaimed wood board we’ve had for years to the console top to give the desk a more organic feel than it had out of the box.
We plan to paint it with a Rove & Dwell formula in the future, and perhaps we’ll add some more personal touches (papered walls, hanging accents, etc.) to the interior as well.
Remember, friends — you don’t need to live large to live functionally and happily.
Sources:
The tapestry is a blanket, made with 80% recycled cotton, by Hillery Sproatt. Each of her blankets is designed from one of her paintings, and is thoughtfully designed, crafted and knitted in the USA. This particular piece reminded us of the community surrounding our Tiny French Farmhouse.
The tapestry is suspended using a customizable quilt hanger system I found via Etsy.
Daily Paper Clutter
Here's my tiny office early on this Monday morning. (I removed my 10,000 other mugs and glasses that were on the desk, but otherwise this is basically what it looks like most of the time.)
Everyone asks how I manage to keep the space so clean. The single handiest tool for curbing the paper clutter is this little device:
Compact-Space Color Mobile Scanner
This little gizmo is one of the best purchases I've ever made. I scan all of our financial records, medical documents, pet paperwork, cards and notes. It saves me from accumulating piles of paper around the cottage, and helps my business run more efficiently. It measures 11.5" x 2" x 1.5" inches-- basically the size of a thick ruler.
It lives on the back of my iMac via a "backpack" that I really love.
More small-space office tips can be found here on one of my older blog posts. I hope it helps!
Tiny Updates
With the Cottage nursery finally set up (see previous posts), I wanted to make a few minor updates around the house to allow the spaces blend together a bit more seamlessly.
My main resource for the updates was Couleur Locale. I love the neutral, Earthy tones and textures of their products:
New grass fringe lampshade, as we thought the bare-bulb would be a bit too bright for the baby.
New coconut tea light holders (for real and faux candles, depending on context) and bowls. This way we won't have to worry about glass or porcelain holders breaking once the baby begins to grab things.
New rattan wicker baskets for decor and market goods:
New handmade bedspread from World By Hand:
New anchor hooks for the bedroom, to match the subtle, nautical theme in the closet nursery:
New stools with backs-- we want to feel more secure and supported when holding the baby during our meals at the breakfast counter:
And a few more little accessories, here and there:
