I'm in love.

With my new schoolroom desks.  

Or maybe just with the guy who made them for me. 

Check 'em out:

Aren't they lovely?  The metal drawer-units on casters are from IKEA, but the desks themselves were designed by my husband and me.  The sides are mahogany-stained plywood, the trim is maple, and the top is a plywood with a white polymer veneer.  That white-veneered stuff is all over our house -- Mark used it to make the boys' beds, the (new) dining table, the shelves in the laundry room and the mudroom and a closet, and a bunk bed for our friends that maybe someday we'll get back.  

I've "done school" on an old dining room table from the beginning.  At first, it wasn't the old dining room table, it was... the dining room table.  Then we moved to a house with a dedicated schoolroom (made out of a dining room) and we got a new table for eating and put the old one in the schoolroom.  And there it stayed until yesterday.

So the desks (four of them) are for my children to have individual space to work.  Ah, but Erin, you're thinking, what about coschooling?  What will you do when you have ten children in your house?

Well... you roll the drawer units against the wall and push the desks together to make a table, of course!

 

(Shown with three of the four 18"x36" desks put together to make a 36"x 54" table.)

Does it work?  Check out today's nature lesson:

 

Even the "spare" desk got used:

 
 

And did I mention that the desks are the exact same height as my dining table (which is made of the same white-covered stuff), so I can use them as table extensions on the dining table too! 

Thanks to Mark for making almost all the tables in my life.  Not just the spreadsheet kind.

Comments

[Bethany]

Those are great! And so cool that they can be put together to make one big table. And extensions to your dining table? Ingenious.

[Jill]

Now, see? I would NEVER think so far in advance. Not at all. I would have bought 3 desks (of one height, fixed them against the wall, bought a "church" table (at a second height...) from Lowe's for the extra kids, and my dining room table would be a third height!

I am amazed at your planning!

[Dorian Speed]

Oh, how clever!

Also, are you in...hmmm, not sure if you tell people where you live or not...what I'm getting at here is that there is a little girl in a couple of those photos who I'd swear is a Darwin.

[bearing]

I have never met the Darwins in real life.

[Tabitha]

Erin, that really rocks! I'm rethinking my schoolroom again this summer. I may steal a few ideas!