A Desk of One's Own

This is a Tonda desk from the web site linked below. Nice. I'm sure that everyone has something they are convinced was missing from their childhood. Fortunately, mine is nothing more damaging than that I didn't have a desk. But how I longed for my own place to work, or as Virginia Woolf might say, "A desk of one's own."

My older brother had a desk. I didn't. It may have been because I was a surprise and there really wasn't room for a desk in the space my family made for me. I thought it was because I was a girl. It was probably all that and more -- and less. What did I need a desk for? As long as my grades were good, I was left alone with my school work.

I was a homework nomad. The kitchen table was good for a short while until it had to be set for dinner. The kitchen counter, even with its barstools and the inviting presence of my busy mother, was never good unless you liked food and grease spots on your papers. The dining room table was  forbidden. My books and papers didn't fit on my dressing table so there wasn't room to work, though lots of exercise from picking everything off of the floor again and again after it fell. To this day, I don't know how I got my homework done as I moved from unsatisfactory spot to unsatisfactory spot.

Can I have a desk, please?  It proved much easier to get a pony.

So, when I became an adult one of the first things I got for myself was a desk. I paid $100 for a used metal desk with a damaged Formica top. I used refrigerator paint to make is presentable. One drawer wouldn't open and close and another was missing. The way I loved it you would think it was owned and blessed by Shakespeare.

And almost before our daughter Lily could scribble with a crayon, you can bet she had a desk. (Of course she does her homework at the kitchen table. Wouldn't you know it?)

My home office is a cobbled-together collection of what I could find mixed with what I could afford. There was no Internet when I shopped for office desks, so I wasn't able to take advantage of well-designed, durably made desks such as Inter County's Price Point line. They must have seen people like me coming when they made these desks with  double-reinforced legs to keep the desk from sagging under the weight of all my un-filed papers and works in progress. And after getting my clothes snagged on chipped Formica for years, I could go for their thicker edging and extra thick desktops. And what if I had all the drawers I wanted -- and they actually worked? These Price Point desks come with an eight-year guarantee.

I've got folding tables, cabinets from a cabinet-makers home show display and even laundry baskets to help me keep my business organized. I was so happy to get the desk -- maybe I should look into getting real office storage. Maybe I'm disorganized because laundry baskets were designed for laundry, not writing projects.

They've got some great looking chairs and bookcases, too. If my computer chair didn't usually have a fully clawed cat perched on the back while I worked (she hangs on when I make quick movements, which hasn't done great things for the fabric), I might consider one of their real, grown-up office chairs you can find in office furniture.

Would I know where I am? Would I know what to do if my home office was set up like an office? It would be fun to find out.

Comments

[lori]

whoa - blast from past. in another life, I designed workstations! we should've had this chat a while back!