If you’ve met either of us, or anyone in my immediate family, you know we fit the definition of independent. Amanda and I used to laugh at our dad when he made the jokes about “Oh, I made these myself!” when he’d bring home donuts for breakfast on the weekend, but the “do it yourself” attitude really stuck, and we’ve been forging our own way through various DIY projects ever since.
One night while I was browsing Pinterest, I saw a built-in desk that I really liked and I snapped a screenshot. The more I looked at it, the more I thought “I bet I could do that myself.” After a bit of research and a lot of drawing out ideas on random pieces of paper, I had a plan. My parents, Amanda, and my husband at the time combined forces and gifted me the materials I needed to put it together for my birthday gift. I had this idea in September, and everyone was coming to my house in October to help me put it together. That meant I had three weeks to plan and execute. Ready to follow along with what we did?
Step One: Plan, Budget, Buy Materials
The planning step I had already done by the time my people said they were purchasing it as a birthday gift for me, so it was just a matter of making sure that anything I purchased fit into the budget that I was given. That was tricky, not because of the budget itself but because anything I tried to find was the wrong size or it wasn’t able to be delivered to the house. Here’s where I started:
I wanted shelves at the top, and that part was the easiest. I got three of the Ikea BILLY Bookcases in white. I wanted the shelves to be open at the back so I left the backing off. I also didn’t put on the bottom parts of the shelves, because I wanted to be able to utilize as much of the desk space as possible.
I also got kitchen cabinets from Lowes. They showed up early and took up a large amount of space in my garage for a week and a half before we actually got them installed. Oops.
The tricky part was finding something that I wanted to use for the actual desk surface itself. Ikea has plenty of countertop options that fit the bill in terms of space – I needed something to cover 96 inches of space and their surfaces are 98 inches. Getting it to the house was the tricky part – both of the options I originally chose were not able to be delivered. There’s no way an over 8 foot countertop was fitting in my CR-V. My “aha” moment came when I realized that I was searching for a white countertop without a guarantee that it would be the same white as the paint I’d worked so hard to match (more on that in step two). After that realization, it took me a grand total of five minutes to decide on this countertop that had enough fake-marble accent to distinguish between it and my paint color while still giving the clean look I was going for.
Step Two: Paint, Paint, Paint
I didn’t think matching paint would be so difficult! I wanted an exact match to the Ikea white. If you do a quick Google search for “paint match to Ikea white” you find a bunch of articles like “try this color to get close to Ikea white!’“ or “5 colors that almost match Ikea white!” but I’m too much of a perfectionist for that. I needed my paint to match completely. I finally found someone that posted a photo of the formula that Home Depot paint-matched for them. I saved that sucker and walked into Home Depot with it and a very patient friend that had been there with me twice already. The guy at the counter said that I made his job easier by simply showing him that formula, so if you’re trying to get Ikea white paint, take this photo of the formula with you!
Also, we didn’t sand the cabinets before we painted them. It gave them a rougher look and absorbed more of the paint. I don’t mind it at all, especially because I got to be lazy and not sand things, but if that isn’t your thing, sand your cabinets!
I decided at the last minute that I wanted to paint an accent wall behind the built-in desk, so I grabbed a can of “Black Magic” and painted three days before we were set to put up the desk. That’s also how I found out that I have textured walls and I needed more paint to cover it all (that was fun …).
Step Three: Cross my Fingers
There were a few reasons that my family was coming to the house. One was to celebrate birthdays (we have quite a few between September and October, mine included). Another was for a craft show for the shop. It was the first one that Amanda got to do with me, but it also meant that I wasn’t going to be in the house while the guys were putting up this built-in desk. To say that I was nervous was an understatement, and it wasn’t because I doubted their ability to execute. It really came down to me doubting my communication skills in telling them what my plans were, so I wrote it out as best I could:
I wrote everything out as detailed as I possibly could, to the point that I was accused of being “extra” (not the first time for that, and definitely not the last). Our mom stayed home to watch my daughter, so I set her on “please make sure they put up the shelves at a ninety-degree angle” duty – since I hadn’t wanted the bottoms on the shelves, they were subject to sitting unevenly unless they were leveled before being bolted to the wall.
It was done before we got back, there were no injuries reported, and my shelves were perfectly level.
Step Four: Decorate!
By far the most fun part of my built-in desk was putting everything away and adding my new decor to it. There’s so much storage in this thing and it’s better than I could have imagined. I mean, look at it!
I’m so grateful to my family for gifting me the ability to do this project, and for the guys putting it together for me while Amanda and I were at the craft show. It’s been my favorite workspace thus far, and that’s compounded by the fact that I got to design it myself!