At the back of our home here in San Francisco is a sun room. It's small, cold, quiet, and lined with windows. The perfect place for a humble home office. And with Mimi soon attending daycare twice a week, I'd need a place where I could start writing in earnest. There was just one problem: no desk.
Mimi, with her developing fine motor skills, was facing a similar situation. She'd discovered a love of drawing, but apart from our coffee table, which I'd like to keep somewhat clean, she had nowhere to put crayon to paper. She needed a kid's table. I needed a desk. Both stat.
But where to go? In these pages I'd previously written that we'd only be purchasing furniture we'd keep "for the long term." And while I continue to feel that way, I've softened a bit on certain items. I still want to find that perfect desk someday, but I've recently realized that I didn't want finding the best furniture to keep me from having a home office. And when it came to Mimi's table, well, she's just going to destroy it anyway. Lastly, with paying off debt from the move and saving up for a car, it was time to go on the cheap. And so it was time to go to Ikea.
Mimi's table, though a pain in the butt to put together, has been a huge hit. She absolutely adores it. From the moment the table stood on its own four legs, well before I'd even finished with the first chair, she knew it was hers. She'd pound on it lovingly, both hands coming down, open-palmed, on the white top to shrieks of excitement. Once the chairs were made, Mimi sat herself down and got right to work.
Of course, being Mimi, she soon decided that a change was needed. Apparently, the table would be far more enjoyable off the carpet and in the middle of the living room. And so, Mimi began to move the chairs.
With the chairs in place, she then had a go at the table. This proved a little much for Mimi, despite her massive determination. Her plan thwarted, she shunned the table, grabbed her artwork, and set off to continue her masterpiece on the chairs alone.
This lasted about 20 seconds.
With the chairs back in place, Mama helped Mimi get back to work.
All told, I think Mimi was pretty satisfied with her artwork. And with our purchase. As I've been writing this, Mimi's been coloring at her table (and on it), interspersing her crayon strokes with kisses for what she's drawn. For me, that's twenty dollars well spent.
And my home office? It's nothing spectacular, but it's functional, and that's all I need. The table supports my laptop, the chair supports my butt (somehow), and I finally have a workspace of my own.
Hopefully, over the coming months, the walls will become peppered with research for stories. I'm looking forward to it.
