The perfect home workplace, by Ilona from @mamoesjka_nl

Working from home, everyone has to deal with it and I have a lot of admiration for everyone who organizes complete meetings and deadlines from the dining room table every day.

On a Wednesday afternoon my children wanted to paint and cut spaghetti. My youngest son asked if I could move to a different place with my laptop. 'of course honey, I'll sit on the floor and work!'. I dreamed of my own workplace, a place to close myself off, pretend I'm not there and without flying splashes of paint.

Description by Ilona (@mamoesjka)

Early in the morning I spontaneously decided to transform a corner in the kitchen into a workplace. My ideas are not always appreciated by my family members because some plans are quite creative. Sometimes a little TOO creative. I thought of sawing off part of the kitchen cupboard to create space for a worktop.

That same afternoon, when no one was looking, I decided to saw off the kitchen cupboard.

How I made this project

I could easily order materials via OPMAATZAGEN.nl. I had the most beautiful wood cut to size with millimeter precision.

For the worktop I chose birch plywood of 27mm thick. Very sturdy for a good base. The worktop is located as a “shelf” in the cupboard with a total length of 1.5 meters.

I did not want to lose space by working with legs or a base. I attached support beams to the back wall and both sides so that the worktop appears to float. Excellent solution to make a worktop fit between 2 walls.

View all our sheet material

Ever since we had children, our house has been a mess, a mess... Clutter in the house creates clutter in my head. Even though I impose severe sanctions on leaving junk lying around, the children don't feel like cleaning up. They are too tired, haven't finished playing yet or they think it would be a shame to break the plane (OW, was that a plane?) made of blocks.

I also secretly make more mess than I would like . I throw papers in a pile and never look at them again. I knew one thing for sure, my workplace must remain clear, neat and tidy.

I decided to make a storage unit from birch plywood, 15 millimeters. I made a box along the entire length with various compartments for all kinds of pens, trinkets and papers. Handy, right? I hid a power strip in the same storage bin. I made a large hole in the right corner for the cables to pass through. Whoa! No junk in my workplace.

Flowing ideas

Once I start, there's no stopping me. The idea started with a simple shelf on the wall, but I am now working on a fully equipped workplace.

I made a simple cabinet on the wall from 15 mm birch plywood. I took the entire length of the wall as a measurement and I also had these materials cut to size. Super handy!

There is a hideous heater next to my workplace. I don't know if there are nice heaters out there, but I wanted to solve this with a nice conversion. I had 2 large planks sawn at right angles for the top and front. For the dimensions I took the full length of the heater and for the top I took the depth. At home I made strips of these planks myself, 5.0 cm wide. You can also have these strips cut to size, but I wanted to do this myself to save costs.

I made a simple frame on which I attached the 5.0 cm strips. To create the same opening each time, I used the same strip as a measuring rod (15 mm end edge). I used wood glue to ensure a tight connection.

Dimensions of my DIY project

~222.0 x ~45.0 x ~6.0 cm