DIY Desk Skirt...aka...How to Hide Ugly Things!

In this house, live five people, with bikes, and army gear, and clothes, and hand-me-downs, and tools, and more tools, and material, and more material, and toys, and books....and more books!!!

......and NO GARAGE!!!

As you can see, storage is a necessity! 

OK, really this spot is at it's worst here. We were knee deep (um, literally) in 50 zillion basement projects, and I had dumped all sorts of project junk on my husband's desk space. In his defense, he is usually tidy. However, peek through the disaster area and notice the book case under the desk. 

Now, you may be someone who loves the look of books (like my husband)...

and they can be cool, 

but we have seven bookshelves in our house and seven is just one too many for me! It was looking a little crazy, so here was the solution I came up with.

I purchased a 3/4 in. rod at Home Depot (you could use larger if you wanted). Nevermind the fact that there are two rods here. Just buy one. I was too unmotivated to look for the extra long rod for my extra long desk and ended up screwing these two together. Just buy one....it's easier!

*Note: I could have just stapled the material to the top of the desk, but I wanted to be able to open it up in the middle and slide the material to the sides, in order to easily find books.

I used these round insert cups (or that's what they are called on the package) to hold the rod in place on the sides of the desk. There are different sizes of these, depending on the size of rod you use. Don't use these for big heavy curtains, but a little desk curtain will be fine. 

I cut a small piece off the side of one. ONLY ONE. So that I could slide my rod in on one side of the desk. 

* I had just finished processing my cherries, so disregard the ugly brown stained spots on my fingers. 

I screwed the insert cups into the top area of my desk. If you are using a desk that is not built-in, I would adhere these to the top of the legs. 

Next, I placed the side of my rod in the uncut cup first, then slid it into the cut cup. This way, you can cut your rod to be the right length for your desk, and still get it to sit in these cups.  

Next I took one of these "things" that hold pipes in place. 

Showy

I screwed it to the top area of my desk. If you are using a desk that is not built-in, you can screw it to the underneath side of the top of your desk. As long as it has some room for movement vertically (just a little). You need to be concerned about your fabric being able to move back and forth on the rod, and therefore it can't be sitting too firmly to the top of the desk.

I would sew your fabric loop (for the rod) larger than I did. Mine doesn't slide as easy as I would like. I tried to use metal loops with clips (like they use for curtains), but they left too big of gaps along the top, and you could see behind the desk...which sort of defeats the purpose!

Now use the material to cover the plastic pieces you used to hold the rod up. 

So there ya have it....ugly books hidden! I made sure to put all the ugly 3-ring binders here too! You could hide all sorts of ugly things behind one of these! 

So despite my husband's love for displaying books, 

I think the skirt looks much more sophisticated!

--Katie

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