Desk Makeover on a Budget Part 2: Ali

Posted by Ali | Tuesday April 16, 2013

Since having my little boy, I have been splitting my time between my desk at ChickAdvisor HQ and my home office. My HQ desk would have been an easier makeover because I don't share it with anyone and the desk design is so pretty to begin with, very little needs to be done. My home desk is always a disaster. I blame that on sharing it with my husband and my toddler who loves to pull things off of it onto the floor. Items end up being dumped on the desk in a hurry with little regard to organization and certainly not design. Behold:

$35 Desk Makeover

I was tempted to tidy this up just a little so you guys don't think I'm a slob, but since you know who is really to blame here, I figure you aren't judging me. Aside from the general disarray, this space is uninspiring. There is no colour and the half hidden tacky family photo where we all went to Wal-Mart wearing Christmas sweaters, isn't really a year round thing. The family calendar isn't coming down anytime soon, but the scattered paperwork, stash of used batteries and day old wine glass aren't helping.

Knowing that Alexandra went to the dollar store for her challenge, I decided to do my shopping at Target. While the prices aren't as cheap as they are south of the border, the selection is more colourful and imaginative than I expected. Here are the items I picked up for my makeover. I spent about $30 before taxes:

$35 Desk Makeover

All of these items are fun and eye catching, but I really love the picture frame. I popped in a picture of my little family. I'm considering D.I.Y'ing the ceramic bird Alexandra style, but I also love how it looks now. After 15 minutes of cleaning my desk and adding the new elements it looks like this:

$35 Desk Makeover

1. Teal storage box, $7ish 2. Picture frame, $9ish 3. Ceramic bird candle holder, $3ish 4. Pink journal $10ish

The pops of colour really made a difference, didn't they? I also added a colourful book under the computer monitor to match my new colour scheme and swapped the Wal-Mart sweater photo for one from my honeymoon - mostly to remind me of how much I love my day-old-wine-glass-leaving desk mate. This was so much fun I'm considering doing my HQ desk too. What do you think?

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9 Comments

	on April 22, 2013 smiley_gen 9,832 said: Looks great for a tiny space!
	on April 21, 2013 shanaz 5,961 said: It looks crisp, clean and well organized! Good job :)
	on April 21, 2013 justjenne 1,755 said: The few new touches are nice but the major difference is just that it isn't cluttered anymore/you cleaned.
	on April 17, 2013 flower 4,433 said: looks great!
	on April 17, 2013 JustUsGirls 3,263 said: I LOOOVE it! You and Alex have both given me some ideas for my office I'm redoing as we speak. I love that bird candle holder and I absolutely love that frame, so cuuuute! You ladies both did a great job!
	on April 17, 2013 lovelydays 3,649 said: Love this! Especially the photo frame! Makes me want to re-do my desk!
	on April 16, 2013 LissaG 6,010 said: Love the colours! Even the smallest bit makes a huge different, it looks great.
	on April 16, 2013 mamaluv STAFF said: I love the teal and pink on clean white!
	on April 16, 2013 takoda 28,648 said: I really like it Ali, you did a nice job balancing out the colors and I love the updated photo's. My little area in badly in need of some color too. The only color I get to see is the sand rock painted walls around me; the rest is all black including my desk! Both you and Alex have inspired me to brighten up my little part of the world, thanks for the ideas.