The fact that I recently--for the first time since All Things Covid-Related began--have been able to concentrate enough to write and read again means more to me than finally putting together this little desk corner, but still: Let us admire a finished project. :) I knew when Mike and I moved into this apartment ten years ago that this little corner would be perfect as my desk corner and also for our Christmas tree, and a few months ago, I got to see the vision come-to-life.
For years, I'd been doodling pictures of the desk corner and gathering bits and bobs for it, and last spring, I found a desk and chair that would fit into this spot. As with the hutch re-do and mantel-painting, the desk went through a couple stages before I found the right color for it. It began an unfinished wood--
--was briefly black--
--and then I realized if I love the green of the hutch in the corner opposite from the desk so much, why not just use the same color here? Green it became, then, as did the chair.
I dolled up the front of the desk and the back of the chair with a decoupage paper. I replaced the desk's round wooden drawer knob with a letter V drawer pull. I added pink gingham paper to the sides of the drawer. And I texted photos to Mom throughout the process. :)
The lamp was a rare splurge, a heavy Italian bust lamp I found on eBay a few years ago and stored in the bedroom until I figured out the rest of the desk. Love, love, love. ♥ I found a top hat lampshade for it, jazzed that up with a different shade of green paint, velvet ribbon for the brim, ferns, and Rosemary--for remembrance.The chair cushion started out as the black gingham pillow Mom had made for me that Stuffed would always rest on on my lap when we sat across the room together, but when I was ready to see it back on that chair without him, I moved it back and bought the black and white ticking stripe cushion to use with the desk. Months of looking for a rug led me to this one on eBay. The seller's mom had made it in the 1940s. The size, pattern, and colors are perfect for this little corner. ♥
The pink gingham desk skirt is actually the skirt I wore to my grandmother's funeral last January. She would more than understand. :) ♥ It is simply slipped onto a tension rod across the front of the desk, which lets me store a bin of rough drafts, index cards, and notes underneath. On the wall above it is an "I Love You" cross-stitch Mom made while pregnant with her oldest, my older brother. She had it in all my bedrooms as a kid and at some point gave it to me to keep. She painted the pink gingham flower pot-turned-pen pot for me years ago too. ♥
The photos on the plant nook underneath the cross-stitch are of Laura Ingalls Wilder and Louisa May Alcott. The narrow wall to the right contains my collection of silhouettes of women writing.
Well, that only took ten years. :)















