There’s a small corner in my living room that conceals my home office. Masked by old-fashioned charm, it’s a fully functional computer workstation, complete with printer, scanner and other ubiquitous computing-related paraphernalia.

When I bought an octagonal lamp table at an auction for five dollars, I didn’t know what I was going to do with it. After some failed experimentation, my final solution was to simply place it in the spot where a loveseat had been in the living room. I brought in a chair from the dining room and covered the marred table with a lace tablecloth. To complete my space, I added an antique oil lamp and a vase of flowers. The large window flooded the space with light and gave me a vast view of the surrounding woodlands. This gave birth to my favorite space to read, write, draw and pay bills.

When I purchased a computer, I wanted to incorporate it into my cozy corner that I had been using for nearly 10 years. At first, I tried one of those modern computer tables on wheels, but quickly realized I desperately missed my auction find. I knew I had to continue using the antique table and decided to figure out how to make that possible.

My solution was to utilize the unused space underneath the table. However, the arrangement of the table’s rungs presented difficulty in using anything store-bought. Being resourceful, I built a small table-like platform out of scrap lumber to fit underneath the octagonal table and over the problematic rungs. I stained it to match the table and ended up with the perfect platform for the computer case and speakers. I went on to build a printer stand, as well, to fit behind my chair in a very tight space between the wall and radiator cover to house a printer/fax machine, scanner and network equipment.

The corner has evolved into my home office, but in off-hours the keyboard easily pushes out of the way to make room for reading, drawing and a plethora of other activities. When I have company, the flat-panel monitor can be placed under the table and no one is the wiser that they are sitting at my workstation. That is, of course, unless they move their feet too far under the table and get tangled in the maze of wires that reveal my favorite corner’s secret.

Posted in: The Cluttered Bookshelf