Kate Spade Inspired IKEA Desk

A plain white IKEA desk hacked into a Kate Spade inspired glamorous desk, with some gold spray paint and striped wrapping paper. Read on to find out how...

So this is part of the ongoing story of me trying to make life happen a little bit better. Everyone has this story, so hopefully you can relate. My goal is always function before form. In other words it’s more important for it to work well than to look beautiful. But it kinda has to look beautiful too. Here's how I came up with a functional IKEA desk made to look beautiful, inspired by Kate Spade.

* kate spade inspired ikea desk *

This is the season of setting up my own office space. After a little bit of trial and error I’ve landed in a corner of what most people would make a living room, where we have a Music Room/Library. Now a Music Room/Library/Mom’s Office. Most of the pieces are re-purposed from other parts of the house, but I wanted the desk to be exactly what I needed. I also wanted it a little bit glam. Just because.

* a little bit of glam *

I was inspired by this carpet I scored for half-price in the IKEA as-is section. Please tell me you always take a peek there when you’re at IKEA too? I was also inspired by the gold spray paint I tested out on this small clip-board art project. So with black and white stripes and gold on the brain, Kate Spade was the obvious style direction. And this was the IKEA desk I chose for my makeover. (Source list for everything also at the bottom of the post.)

* room with a view *

Then the stars aligned for me and my sweet friend innocently mentioned that she was making an IKEA run, and did I need anything? Well. Everyone always needs something from IKEA, even if it’s only tea lights or serviettes. So jokingly I said Yeah sure, I need a desk. And sweet friend picked it up for me!!!

* my work space *

Project IKEA hack began. Before assembling the desk, I took the metal base pieces and gave them several coats of gold spray paint. This is the paint I used, and it took three cans to get complete coverage. To be honest a few spots could have used one more coat, but that would have made three Home Depot runs for one project which is just ridiculous. If you do this project, do me a favour and just buy four cans.

* gold accent *

Before assembling the drawers, I used some spray adhesive and wrapping paper to add this pretty black and white stripe detail to the inside of the drawer. I sprayed the bottom drawer piece with the adhesive and lay it down on the reverse side of the wrapping paper with some heavy books on top to weigh it down. After about an hour (to let the glue cure) I used an exacto knife to trim away the excess paper and continued with the assembly.

* hidden detail *

I’m in love with how it turned out. The desk is wide enough for me to spread out all my working junk and still have space for some pretty flowers. Having that extra touch of gold glam makes the desk feel personalized. And… who wouldn’t smile when even the inside of a drawer looks pretty! Also the window light right here is gorgeous for photography. #bonus

* window light is the best light *

Now my desk matches my carpet matches my planner. Life is good. If you want to make a matching planner too, click over to this post. #youshouldmaketheplanner

* black & white stripe obsession *

How do you feel about having a dedicated office space in the house? It’s been a game changer for me, and I hope I never have to go back to the shuffle between kitchen table, kitchen counter, dining table, couch……. I think it was worth the effort to get the perfect desk, wouldn’t you do it too?

* pin me *

Sources:

Desk: IKEA
Spray paint: Rustoleum Metallic Champagne Mist
Spray adhesive: Elmer’s all-purpose spray adhesive
Wrapping paper: Creative Bag, this one from Chapters would also be beautiful
Planner: Kate Spade Inspired Planner blog post
Carpet: IKEA
Wake up and be awesome mug: similar
Scissors: Lee Valley
Ribbon: Etsy
Cylinder vase: Dollarama
Blue and white dish: thrifted
Shoes: Sam Edelman old, similar

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Also, more upcycling and IKEA hacks: