We live in a real old home and just built around what we have. I too wanted mine in kitchen so i could watch what the GK were doing on it. DH built this one between two windows and the storage cabinet had to go lower to fit under window. Works great for us. DS built knew home and used one of those computer desk that look like a piece of furniture and she can close the door and not see anything.
Works for her. Good luck in your knew home.

I would be very interested to see others pics too. Amanda 80, we have the very same situation. Our computer and desk are in a dressing room off of our bedroom, and I want it down in the kitchen where I can keep an eye on the kids. Our desk area is very messy and I also want something very organized. Our kitchen designer wants to do a custom built in desk (we are getting semi-custom cabinets for the kitchen)but it is very pricey. I am wondering if anyone has pics of a desk area that you got from your cabinetry manufactuer.

Your husband did a beautiful job on that desk, patches.

I'd love to have some of that snow you've got - my little ones would love it! My 4 year old has never seen more than just a light dusting - just enough to make a snowball when we cleaned off the hood of the car.

Anyone else have pictures to share?

I love my kitchen desk! It's not always this neat, unfortunately. I like that it's convenient to everything, but still out of the way of the cooking area.

Here you can see where it's located in the context of the kitchen.

It's not the best picture, but we put one in for the same reason as you. We recognize the kids will need one and there will be no computers in their rooms. I want to keep an eye on them! I really need to get some organization going on it, though.

I'm trying to plan a desk space. How wide are your pencil drawers/chair spaces? Thanks!

We replaced our old kitchen desk with a counter height one and added upper cabinets. Counter height may not be a good idea for small children but our kids are bigger. We also have a separate office with computers; sometimes we use a laptop at the kitchen desk but it isn't as comfortable as sitting at a nice comfy office chair at a regular height desk. We wanted our new desk to be more furniture like so the counter height works well and we really like it.

Regarding taming the clutter, I'll post some photos of how ours is set up. The centre (glass fronted) cabinets have display items in them and I still have quite a bit of empty space in the desk itself and cabinets above; however, I do have a separate filing cabinet in our computer room though.

Sorry about the big size of the photos; I tried resizing them to message board size and even e-mail size but this is as good as it got.

Desk--drawers on left are 15" wide, centre drawer (and space for stool/chair) is 23" and the right bank is 13":
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Filing cabinet drawer:
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Labeled dividers for bills to pay, ATM receipts, etc.
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Top left drawer:
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Next drawer:
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Next drawer down has phone books then bottom drawer has the file folders.

Centre drawer for my calendar, grocery lists & things I want to see at a glance:
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Top drawer on right--misc. stuff (my junk drawer):
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One of the upper cabinet shelves with wire rack for each family members' various current credit card receipts:
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Coleen I like the size of your desk. Ours was as big as we could go for our space.

many_hats: Omigosh! Now I see the secret--You are organized. The furniture doesn't organize itself! LOL. And that is the source of MY problems.

Is your calendar actually inside the center drawer? So, when you face the desk and pull the drawer out, the calendar is oriented correctly for reading? Well, duh. I never, ever would have though of that. And thus, I live in a pigsty! It does require sacrificing that center drawer, though. Hmmm...

As a last-minute redesign we added a small office at the end of our kitchen-to-be. So, I thank you, amanda, for this thread. (My brother has a tiny office just off his foyer, across from the kitchen. He calls it his "Control Room." Has the illusion that it's possible to control a household! Still, it's worth a try. I know what you're going for and so am i.)

Yes, BJ I guess you could say I'm organized! I honestly think that although being organized takes more work up-front, it is sooooo worth it as it is a time-saver in the long run--no more "I know that must be around somewhere, but where?" (Well, as long as everyone puts stuff away, and sometimes that's the hard part--lol.)

Yes my calendar is just as you thought--very easy to see. I'd be lost without it but didn't want it laying on the desk like my old one did. It took some looking to find one that was a bit bigger than usual (my old one was huge) and had a coil binding so it lays perfectly flat and I can flip the pages just like a book if I'm, say, booking an appointment and having to scan ahead a month or more. My grocery lists are at hand and the other thing is a list of monthly bills to pay and when they're due. As you say, it does take up a drawer, but it was a good tradeoff for me as all the room in the upper cabinets was bonus storgage as that wall was empty before the reno.

Happy organizing!

Wow! Thank y'all so much! I'm here all the time, but don't post much, both because of slow dial-up internet and lack of knowledge. I really appreciate everyone taking the time to put up pictures for someone you don't know! :)

elljays, it really looks like you've got some great space for hiding office clutter. And you, coleen, have so much space to spread out - I love it!

many_hats - All I can say is WOW!!! That's the level of organization that I aspire to. I'm guessing you're one of those who were born organized, instead of one of us who has to work hard for it? Or are you perhaps a FLYbaby? Thanks so much for letting me see how lovely clutter-free can be! :)

OT but Colleen what type of marble is your island countertop? It is beautiful. We are trying to decide on marble for a section of our perimeter counters. Thanks.

I apologize for the thread hijack -

elljays - I love your kitchen; it is very close to what I am going for. I have a question about your island light - is it called a bell jar? Anyway, my designer has suggested that it would get filthy and be a nightmare to clean. Have you have any trouble? She also thinks it would cast a shadow on my island and not be good for task lighting, which I need.

I really love the look of that light and would love your feedback!

Amanda80--I've been trying to think all evening what FLYbaby stands for or means and am still drawing blanks. Please fill me in!

The link below will explain it all. Flylady sends out dozens of daily emails to try to keep those of us who weren't born organized on track. She's big on routines, and is very encouraging. And Flybabies is her term for all of her subscribers.

Here is a link that might be useful: Flylady.net - Your personal online coach to help you gain control of your house and home

Wow, Amanda, who knew there was such a need?! So, officially, no I'm not a FLYbaby but I must've been born (or cursed, depending on which family member you talk to, lol) with some of the genes as I could easily have written a lot of what was on her site. I guess it was from my mother's philosophy of "a place for everything and everything in its place" combined with my father's orderliness (he was a career military officer). Seeing my son's bedroom proves it isn't always inherited though!

Best of luck in your desk decision!

Smarge, you're right - our lights are called bell jars. We have two over the island. With three bulbs in each one, they really provide great light. In fact, we don't even turn them on all the time, because they're more than we need. (We also have some recessed lighting). There are no shadows cast by it. The jars do get dusty, but I've found them easy to clean...the jar part unhooks easily. The smoke bell above is no different to clean than any other pendant. I clean the bell jars about 3-4 times a year, which isn't too bad. I just really liked the look, especially for our older home.

Many hats, some people looks at the FLYlady program and see the value in it but already do much of the things she suggests. It sounds like you may be one of those.

Hi vwhippiechick - the island is honed carrara, btw.

Hi all! would love to keep this going and hear from some people who have older kids who are already on the computer. Mine are 11, 10 and 6 and use it all the time. My oldest needs it for her homework too. Those with older kids: do you have a family computer desk? Is it in the kitchen? family room?

I had been planning a little kitchen desk just for me and my inbox, household files, and a laptop to check email, but am beginning to wonder if this is the right approach.

Love the pictures! The level of organization is inspiring!

WE have 1 teen and an 8yr old. We have an exra bedroom used for the computor room. We store all paper work in there, like an office, but we also store jackets and school supplies. I really don't like to listen to the hip-hop and other different (not offesive tho) music the teen listens to and it helps when the youngest is doing 'learning' programs that he isn't distracted.
Plans are to get a laptop soon though.

Does anyone have a hole in their built-in desk top for all the wires to go into? I want to have one made in my desk, but I don't know what the flange thing that goes into it is properly called, and the fabricator said to buy that thing first so he knows how big to make the hole.

What is the cover for that hole called and where did you buy yours?

Thanks!

It's called a grommet. Here are some -

http://cableorganizer.com/grommets/

It's called a desk grommet or cable hole cover.

Here is a link that might be useful: Desk grommet

also google "wire grommet." DH picked up ours at a local woodworking store.

Here is a picture of our desk area. Sadly it took me almost a year before I questioned why all our mail stacks were on the counter when we had a desk area and file cabinet. From the forum, I found a good file cabinet organizer. I use it to put the sorted mail in a folder instead of creating several stacks of sorted mail. It is also useful when we have things in transit - like an order that is supposed to be picked up in 3 weeks - I file it in the cabinet. One good suggestion from my KD - we made the desk counter height. We have a bar chair there. You can't see it in the picture, but recently I bought a desk top shredder. Even better to help get my mail stack problem under control.

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I LOVE my kitchen desk.....great feature! :0)

Here is a link that might be useful: My kitchen desk

I have 2 kids at home age 10 and 13. We really want to keep an eye on them when they are on the computer, so we made a little office for them just off the kitchen. The views you see here are essentially from the kitchen sink. They love having their own space, and we can easily keep an eye on what they are doing while making dinner. I hesitate to post these pics after seeing manyhats perfectly organized space, as we haven't quite done things like mount the bulletin board on the wall, and the desk is covered with all of the kids' stuff, but hopefully you will get the idea.

bump

For arranging messy wiring you can use grommets, maybe this site http://www.cabletiesandmore.com/grommets.php

Here is a link that might be useful: Grommets