in classic “me” fashion, exactly five days before school started, i looked around our house and decided that little mr. re-nest #1 didn’t have an appropriate space to be creative, explore, and eventually, do any homework he might bring home. (yes, he’s only five. i’m type a. i like to be prepared.) he had a small craft table down near my studio area that never really took off with him. it was cramped and i always feared he’d knock his head into the side of my table. but….

we had this kind of sad little area in our kitchen that was the perfect space for a desk. (i mentioned in this post that the builders of our house decided against putting in a permanent desk option, which looking back on from my brand new desk that i’m writing at, i’m happy with that decision!) for the last seven or so years, that space has been home to a little console table that we bought when we lived back in indianapolis…it fit, it managed to fit a laptop and a framed picture. but we never really used it. that whole space had the opportunity to be way more functional and useful for us as a family.

i started my usual search for a desk and shelf combo, and i knew right where i was going: ikea. they have such a giant range of desk options that it can get totally overwhelming. but i found what i thought would work: the micke desk and the kallax four-opening shelving unit. (i even measured the space before we went to the store!) off to ikea we went….

well, of course we went in a tad bit of a different direction. mr. re-nest found a much better option for us that actually gave us more storage space (because let’s face it, who couldn’t use another drawer or two?) so, we built a desk from ikea’s massive range of table top, table leg, and console options and came up with a pretty amazing set up (if we do say so ourselves!) 

and, here it is….the newest creative station in the re-nest house. and of course, i had to dress it up with markers and crayons and colored pencils and pretty binders! (and, the early reports from little mr. re-nest #1 are in: he loves it. the biggest heart melting moment was the day it was finished, he pulled up the chair, got our his lego notebook and dove right into the markers to color.)

what do you think? i’m so in love with this space, i can hardly stand it!