We rearranged my daughter’s bedroom to make space for a small desk and it turned out so cute! Sharing all of my best tips for organizing a small desk.
My daughter has been begging for a desk but I really didn’t think it was possible to squeeze one into her small bedroom.
But organizing small spaces always required a bit of creative thinking, and I had an idea: replace her nightstand with a desk! Multipurpose furniture is a great way to make the most of a small room like this.
So we thrifted a little desk, painted it, rearranged her room a bit, and got her all set up with the most adorable desk. Chloe’s in first grade now and I think this desk space will serve her well for years!
Related: See Chloe’s pink bedroom makeover
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Table Of Contents
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Watch the Video
See this project come to life and tour Chloe’s organized desk in this 40-second video.
How to Arrange a Bedroom with a Desk
I think desks work great in bedrooms but it can be a little tricky to know the best bedroom layout with a desk. This will all depend on how large your bedroom is, but for this kids’ bedroom in particular I focused on finding a small desk that could function as both a desk and a nightstand.
I originally planned to keep her room layout as is and swap the nightstand for a little desk under the window. This worked great!
But then I wondered if there was a way to free up wall space for the desk so we could hang a bulletin board or shelf above it. So I rotated her bed 90 degrees so the foot of the bed was under the window instead. This gave us great wall space for a desk and it surprisingly made her room feel a lot larger!
Now she can still open and close her curtains and blinds, which would have been challenging to reach with the desk in the way as I’d originally planned.
And there isn’t a ton of floor space in front of her Barbie dollhouse, but there’s still room for Chloe and a friend to sit there and play just fine. And I told her if she wants a little more space to play Barbies, we could swap the placement of the wall hooks with her sweatshirts and the dollhouse.
How to Paint a Desk
I searched Facebook Marketplace high and low for a small desk that would fit in Chloe’s room. I wanted something with a couple of drawers to organize office supplies. And I found the most adorable secondhand desk with two drawers!
This desk is nice and sturdy, all it needed was a quick paint job to cover up all of the marker on top. Chloe wanted a light blue desk and we chose the color Rainy Days from the Magnolia paint line at Ace Hardware. I had it mixed in their matte finish paint.
Before you paint a desk, it’s important to do a bit of prep work. We wiped down the whole thing with a microfiber cloth and a cleaning spray degreaser. This removes dust and grime and ensures you have a clean surface for your paint to adhere to.
We also used 220 grit sanding blocks to lightly sand the desk before painting. This just helped buff up the surface a bit which can give you better paint adhesion. There were a couple of thicker paint spills on the desk surface so I sanded those down with a heavier grit sandpaper to make sure everything was nice and smooth.
Then it was time to paint the desk! We used a small paint roller to apply thin coats on all of the flat surfaces, and a small paint brush worked great to paint the legs and detailed areas. We did two coats of paint on the entire desk.
After the paint had fully dried, we removed the old drawer hardware and installed these pretty crystal knobs.
How to Organize a Small Desk
I had an absolute blast organizing Chloe’s new desk space! I added a fluffy fur rug under the desk and Chloe picked out a matching fur stool to go with it. I wanted a small stool that can be tucked all the way under the desk when not in use which saves space. The top of the stool even lifts off to reveal a little compartment inside for extra storage.
Organizing the desktop
I started by organizing the top of her small desk with a desktop organizer that has lots of compartments for notebooks, pencils, and more. I also added a pretty headphone stand and desk lamp–even the lamp has space to store trinkets.
I hung a magnetic memo board above the desk to give her space to display her artwork and whatnot. I love the minimal look of the small magnetic strip–it came with quite a few small silver magnets and I also couldn’t resist these cute donut magnets.
Organizing Desk Drawers
Next up was organizing desk drawers. I added an expandable drawer organizer to one of the drawers, and I really like this organizer because it can expand to fit a range of drawer widths so you get that perfect fit. It also came with extra dividers that can snap into the organizer to create more small compartments if desired.
I left the second desk drawer open for notebooks and larger items. I added a little color with a piece of rainbow striped wrapping paper laid on the bottom of the drawer. And I LOVE this pretty blue scalloped pen tray I found…definitely want to steel that for my own desk!
Organizing Under the Desk
Since we’re working with a very small space, I wanted to create additional storage underneath the desk as well. The wire crate works great for holding lots of notebooks, workbooks, activity books, and more.
I also added this large scalloped rattan basket next to the desk. I love large baskets like this in kids’ rooms because they are great places to stash backpacks, stuffed animals, books and more.
Adding more storage under the bed
We added even more storage under the bed. The wire crate is filled with craft kits and extra supplies. And we also slid Chloe’s large art supply tote under the bed. This tote is filled with markers, construction paper, coloring books and more.
Organizing Cords Under the desk
The final step of desk organization is cord control! I ran an extension cord under the desk and hid it behind the wire crate of books. It has multiple outlets for plugging in the desk lamp, nightlight, charging cables, etc.
Then I placed a couple adhesive cord clips on the side of the desk to hold the lamp power cord and Chloe’s iPad charger. I love these little cord clips for both desks and nightstands, they really help keep long cords tidy so they’re not falling all over the floor.
Shop Chloe’s Small Desk Space
Desk Makeover – Rainy Days matte paint, crystal knobs on drawers
Desktop:
- White desk lamp – no longer available, similar one here
- Acrylic headphone stand
- Headphones
- Cat sticky note cube
- Clover steel accessory trays – no longer available (more fun options: checkered tray, moon trinket trays, square ceramic tray)
- Blue desktop organizer
- Yoto mini audiobook player
- Strawberry sticky notes
- Colorful pencils
- Erasable pastel markers
- Colorful notebook
- Magnetic memo strip
- Donut magnets
- Etsy printable artwork – colorful macaroons, What’s the Best That Could Happen quote
- Purple “Chloe” pennant flag – see the tutorial
- Pink double wall hook
Drawers:
- White expandable drawer organizer
- Omy Double-Tipped Markers
- Rainbow heart erasers
- Large green and blue eraser
- Pencil sharpener
- Amazon colored pencils
- Navy floral notebook
- Blue scalloped pen tray – no longer available (more options: gold pen tray, felt desk tray set, blue ceramic tray)
- Slim rainbow pens
Under Desk:
- Small stool with storage
- Small fur rug
- Wire crate
- Pink round box
- Large scalloped edge rattan basket
- Extension cord
- Cord clips (on side of desk)
Under Bed:
Room Decor:
- Pink wall paint
- White patterned area rug
- Black metal bed – we have this similar one in Logan’s room and it’s great!
- Pink comforter – similar
- Blue blanket – similar
- Rainbow artwork above bed – white poster frame, printable rainbow art
I hope this post gives you some ideas for organizing a small desk and making the most of a small bedroom.
Looking for more organizing ideas? Take a look at these blog posts:
- Small Bathroom Cabinet Organization
- Nursery Closet Organization Ideas: 15 Smart Tips To Maximize Closet Space
- Small Laundry Room Makeover (With Easy Updates!)
- Organizing Kids’ Art Supplies – Tour Our Craft Cabinet!
- Organizing A Modern Home Office Nook
Have a fantastic day!
