Desk Nook Phase 1

***So it turns out I accidentally shared phase 2 of our desk nook before I shared Phase 1.  Well, here's the first part...of which you probably already caught glimpses if you read last week's phase 2 post.  Oh well!***

A few weeks back while attempting to tame the chaos that had become our playroom, we decided to move our desk into the closet, thus freeing up precious real estate in the actual room.  Although it was kind of a last-minute decision, it's actually really working for us. So now that we know the desk is there to stay, we have some major work to do to make our nook look a little less blah and chaotic:

The first step I took was to go ahead and paint the inside of the closet the same gray as the rest of the room.  Luckily, I had some leftover from when I had painted a few years back, so it was pretty straightforward.

Once that was done, I got to work dealing with the space above the shelf.  In looking at images of desk closets (there's tons on Pinterest if you're interested), I found that I was drawn to those that had a fun pattern on the back wall.  I considered painting stripes...or chevron...or some other pattern, but honestly, I've been there, done that and wanted something different here.  My next thought was to maybe do some wallpaper or something back there, but from what I could tell, cool wallpaper is pretty darn expensive.  And so I started looking at the potential of using fabric...and that's when it dawned on me!  

Instead of just hanging up a big ole piece of fabric, I should cover some cork with the fabric and achieve two goals: fun pattern on back wall AND a place to tack up inspiration, announcements, reminders, etc.

So that's exactly what I did.  I picked up a roll of cork at AC Moore which happened to be just about the exact measurements I needed for our wall (minus a couple inches on the side, but oh well) and a yard of fabric.  I hot glued the fabric to the back of the cork, folding the corners like a present and when I was done I had a fabric-wrapped piece of cork...that I promptly nailed to the wall.

You may have noticed that with the fabric in place, the shelf and other clutter were too much, so I also did some paring down in there.  But looking at that mess, I obviously had some more work to do.  Have no fear, I quickly took action to tackle Phase 2.  I'll be back soon with those details...