Bookends

Today’s tip is courtesy of Martha, THE Martha. The idea is essentially as pictured — reuse a door and small bookshelves to make a desk with storage so you have more desktop space. It’s a neat idea but there’s one small problem that many people might have with this idea. It looks as if it might require a lot of room around the desk for it to be functional.

Creating space around a desk might not be a big deal if space is not an option. But it’s rather rare for people to reserve the largest rooms in their homes for their offices. In most home offices, a desk like this one would almost NEED to be at an angle, as pictured, if one is going to be able to access both book shelves. If you have an office large enough to have your desk parallel to a wall with enough room on either side to visually see what’s on the shelves — as in you don’t have to make a special effort to see one side — then angling this piece of furniture will not be necessary. Katie suggests having one of the bookshelves face inward if space is an issue.

The precise directions can be found at marthastewart.com but all you’re doing is taking a set of small bookshelves that are about the width of the door and repainting them all the same color. Perhaps there is a little glue involved to keep the desk top from shifting. The door is either going to be courtesy of your own house or Home Depot.

I thought this would be a useful re-purpose for Smart Structures in need of more rooms for bookshelves or rather a useful solution for people who live with bibliophiles and can’t stand to look at piles of books on the floor. But, I also thought it might be a decent way for Organics and Smarts of all stripes to store piles of papers in lieu of on top of their desk if they didn’t have enough regular bookshelf space. One can never have too many piles of paper, can they? No smart-aleck answers from Classics and Funs, please.