Murphy Desk

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Earlier this week, I showed you some before and after shots of my daughter’s bedroom makeover. If you feel like hyperventilating and getting all twitchy, go take a look at those before photos! Yikes!

Today, I thought I’d go into a little more detail with some of the things we switched! One of the biggest changes was removing her gargantuan desk. This was a desk I had picked up free from a neighbor and gave a cute little makeover to a few years prior.

It was a great, solid desk and I loved the way it looked. The size was just better suited for somebody with a 500 sq. ft. office than a young girl’s bedroom. We tried to tuck it into the dormer, but it just filled up the whole space. And once my daughter worked her clutter magic on it, you couldn’t even tell it started out cute!

So away the giant desk went and we built her a Murphy desk instead!

We followed Shanty 2 Chic’s plans, and I’m just now noticing that we have very similar wall colors too!

To build the desk surface itself, we used a Kreg Jig to make pocket holes to attach the boards together. I figured if she was leaning on the desk as she’s working, this would just help make it a lot more solid and stable.  This photo shows the underside of the desk surface. This is the area that the photo will later cover.

We decided to skip the chalkboard front since the little door right beside her desk was already painted with chalkboard paint. Instead, I took one of my favorite pictures of her and 2 of her cousins and had it blown up at Staples as an engineer print. It cost me a whopping total of $1.70 for this print. Then I just used some 3M strips and stuck it right on. I love how when it’s closed up it looks like a giant picture frame!

On the inside, we also adjusted the shelves so they were a bit more evenly spaced. I totally get why Shanty 2 Chic spaced theirs the way they did to allow for a container of tall pencils or other items. I’m just more of a symmetry gal and this worked for me visually!

She obviously has less storage space with this desk, but she has plenty for what she needs. The girl needed to throw away about 85% of what she was keeping in her previous desk. Plus, her red stool gives her extra storage beyond just the desk.

I’m just a fan of how much floor space it freed up! Even when it’s open, the room just looks more airy and light!

You will need to buy some specialty hinges and a latch for this project. We purchased ours at our local hardware store, but they are similar to these that you can buy on Amazon:

Piano Hinges

Latch

And just to recap, we went from this:

to this:

(this was probably the stage where her and I were debating which stool

to use, the red or the zebra. I won with the red!)

Be sure to check out the rest of her room in this post. You can see how we built her an entire wall unit for her bookshelf out of a thrift store find!

DIY Wall Unit from 80’s Headboard

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