Sunday, January 24, 2010

Cover-Up

Linking up with DIY at A Soft Place to Land.

We have a built-in desk in our dining area where we keep the family computer. The kitchen/dining/family room are all open to one another, across the back of the house. Although I wouldn’t call it a great room, because size-wise it’s not that great. Anyway, I like having the computer out in public where I can keep an eye on what’s going on.

IMG_2679 Photo taken as we were moving in; from family room looking toward dining/kitchen, desk on right.

The problem is that it’s a mess magnet, and even if the mess is cleaned up, the computer and printer and all the cords create their own visual clutter.

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You may notice the drawers pulled out with a board laid across for the keyboard. That was our solution to one of those what-was-the-builder-thinking problems: the desk surface is too high to use comfortably. When I sit in the chair, the original desk is at chest height. Typing was giving me lots of neck and shoulder aches. So while this may not be beautiful, it’s more functional. Theoretically, I can put that all away when it’s not in use. Realistically, it stays out pretty much permanently.

Today I had two goals: hide the mess, and recover the chair seat. Remember this chair makeover

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using my garage sale fabric that was also used on the kitchen windows,

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but that fabric on the chair seat literally shredded, just from normal daily use.

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This time I used the garage sale fabric to sew a little curtain to hide the mess behind. Four straight seams and a tension rod did the trick. Originally I was going to use the small check to cover the seat of the chair, because the scale of the large check was too similar to the scale of the garage sale fabric.

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But as Craig and I looked at it, the small check began to kind of quiver and do something weird to our eyes; I seriously felt a little nauseous. So, the big check it was, scale or no scale. But I still think the small check would look better.

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The cool thing was that Craig got on board while I was working on the fabric, and he drilled a hole in the desktop and fed all the cords down through it. Now that mess is all under here behind the curtain

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instead of all over the top of the desk. Perfect? No. Better? Definitely!

11 comments:

Becky@Beyond The Picket Fence said...

What a great and pretty cover-up. And you are wise to keep the computer in a central and easily seen location!

Treasia Stepp said...

What a great way to hide the cord clutter. I've got to do something like this for myself. Thanks for the inspiration. It looks great.

Michelle said...

Love your fabric choices...they look great together!

Enjoy your week :)

Miss Obara said...

Great solution! I love garage sale fabric finds too~

Amanda @ Serenity Now said...

Awesome!!! Was it maybe originally supposed to be a wet bar? That's the only thing I can think of to account for the desk being so high.

Love the skirt!!! :)

Amanda @ Serenity Now said...

PS. I also meant to say that I really like your kitchen curtains...you've inspired me. :)

Unknown said...

Much, much better! Great solution!

Nancy

Jocelyn said...

Great cover-up! Wonderful solution.

Jocelyn
http://justalittlesouthernhospitality.blogspot.com/

Melinda said...

Looks great! Like the big checks with the curtain fabric.
Great solutions to all issues.

Melinda

Unknown said...

That fabric is beautiful! I totally agree with you about the small checked fabric, but it makes me kind of dizzy also. :)

Unknown said...

That looks great! Love the fabric.