How To Makeover Your Work Desk Under RM50
Since we spend many hours at our desks, might as well make it cosy.
By Tamara Jayne — 07 Sep 2020, 06:24 PM
The average person spends 90,000 hours at work over a lifetime. That's... a lot of hours.
Whether we work from home or at an office, our environment can make a big difference to our well-being.
Having moved to a new office recently, I decided to try sprucing up my own workspace so that it feels a little cosier.
Here's how my desk looked like before:
Without spending too much money and with the help of my sister, we revamped it into a space that I'm really happy with now
The total cost came up to less than RM50. But even if you're on a tighter budget, it's possible to make your workspace homey.
Most of the main items were from some of my favourite stores, Daiso and Kaison. But you can also find similar items from other budget stores.
I got a white wire grid from Daiso for RM5.90. The idea was to hang whatever items on it that I can change up if I ever get bored.
We initially wanted to use transparent bookends from Daiso to hold the grid up. But decided to save that money instead and dipped the grid into cement that my sister already had at home to make a platform.
She used an empty lightbulb container as the cement mould and left it to dry for three to four days.
Then came the other fun parts like decorating the grid!
How you decorate is really up to you. If you're not into plants, you can hang items like photos, postcards, stationery holders, and such.
My sister gave me a couple of small plant pots. But if you want, you can get them from any plant shop or online for about only RM0.80 cents each.
If I have a green thumb and good sunlight, I'd probably go with real plants. But I went with fake ones from Kaison that looked the most realistic. They have plenty of choices but these bunches cost about RM3.60 each.
We used binder clips to hang the items on. And also clipped some small photos, hung a couple of cinnamon sticks, a deer cut-out, and some wheat decor to follow the 'nature' theme.
You can find all kinds of shelves from budget stores. I got two acrylic ones from Daiso for the front of my desk.
But you can also get bookends and make your own little 'library' corner or place small drawers for you to keep other items.
Wanting to keep it simple cheap, we added items we found around the house to match the theme – a pinecone from a trip to Genting Highlands, a glass ornament with potpourri inside, and a We Bare Bears light I received as a gift.
You can add other items that you fancy, like a candle or pictures of your loved ones. Anything you like, really!
This under-table basket from Daiso didn't fit my old desk, but I'm glad it fits this new one!
It's great for storing things that I need to grab on-the-go, like my handphone, office tag, and mask.
It's not necessary but it does make it slightly convenient. If you don't have drawers, this could be a good alternative.
They sell it in white as well, which is what I would've preferred, but since I already had the brown one, I decided to just make do with it.
This is the white version for reference:
It's simple but I love it. And hopefully, this inspires you to spruce up your own workspace!
