I get a ton of questions on our school room, and so I thought I would do an update on our Ikea setup.
So to answer your questions…
- YES, we still love our desks!
- YES, they’re still white! (They clean very easily with some water, Windex, or for certain marker spots I used Clorox Cleaner)
- YES, my kids have survived the swivel chairs!
I also get a LOT of questions on how our desks are set up so I thought I’d show you more detailed pictures of the setup. I moved the drawers out to the ends this year so there was room for the chairs to push all the way in. In order to do that, I had to get a piece of board to help make the desk tops more steady.
I found a piece of 4×8 peg board at my local home depot ($8) and had the nice man there cut it in half for me. (I’ll show you what I did with the rest of it later ;o)
I put the board on top of the drawer units to help stabilize the desk tops. I think it would work better if I’d had one that was 5’x’ 5’ but you work with what you have.
EDITED: To prevent slipping, I have since purchased a set of 4 flat metal brackets. I used them to screw the two desktops together so they don’t move apart. I also added a rubber rug mat (the kind to keep small area rugs from sliding around) in between the peg board and the desktops. Works like a charm!
My school room is about 11′ x 14′, the total size of the desk is about 5′x5′.
What are the specifics?
- 4 – Vika Alex Drawer units
- 2 – Vika Amon Table Tops (I purchased two 2.5′ x 5′ table tops and put them together for a 5×5 table, I’ve updated this link the table tops are now called “Linnmon” but they’re the same as mine.)
- 1 Expedit Wall Shelf (I have a 5×5 Expedit/Kallax shelving unit)
- 4 Jules Jr. Swivel Chairs (Update: Swivel chairs are working well, they’ve gotten over the spinning, so it’s all good now.)
- 5 DRÖNA Storage boxes
Here’s a close-up of the drawers and chairs for you. I turned them all in a pin-wheel pattern so that one set of drawers is facing each student. I’m strongly considering getting a glass top cut for this to protect all my whiteness, but that’ll have to come later as budget allows. I am also thinking of securing the desk tops to the drawer units with screws just to prevent slipping.
EDITED: I also added a rubber rug mat (the kind to keep small area rugs from sliding around) in between the peg board and the desktops. Works like a charm!
Here is the completed unit, the openings are now wide enough for the chair to slide all the way in.
And here it is completely put together:
Hi there!! Is the peg board absolutely necessary? Thank you so much for your wonderful idea!! My husband is putting everything together today. I noticed there are little pegs on top of the drawers in the 4 corners(to make sure desk tops don’t scrape). And it looks like somebody said the desktops come with brackets now? I haven’t opened those yet. So, is the peg board still necessary?
Trying to figure out if I need to run to Home Depot Thank you.
Hi, I liked that it gave us a little extra support in the middle, but if you put a couple of desk legs there that would also help. The brackets kept our desks from moving around, but they don’t provide much support in the center if you plan to put something heavier on it like we did with our supply carousel.
Could you use legs to support the center?
Yes, you could definitely do that!
Are the chair spaces wide enough for an adult to sit? I’m considering something like this as a multi-station craft table.
Yes if you’re a smaller adult, but they’re a bit hard 🙂
Hi! Thanks so much for sharing. You said “ I moved the drawers out to the ends this year so there was room for the chairs to push all the way in.” Do you have a picture of having the drawers on the inside? And did you have to use legs to stabilize the table top? It’s appealing to me to enable the opening to be at each corner, being able to sit on either side, but I would like your real world experience to help inform my decision. Thanks in advance.
Yes, I previously had them set up like in this post, but it wasn’t as functional. https://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/blog/2011/08/our-schoolroom-on-ikea.html
Hi! I was just checking out your desk, love it! Kallax does makes a 5×5 unit now if you wanted to update the info. The white one is super hard to find lately but it exists!
Oh thanks for letting me know, maybe they had enough requests to bring it back! 🙂
Hi, I’ve enrolled the homeschool organization class and getting a lot of insight 🙂 Thanks!!!
I have a question. Is the pegboard of Ikea? Also, what kind of rubber mat do you use? I live in Korea so we have Ikea but maybe won’t be able to find the exact one you use. But, I’ll get some idea and fine something here in Korea 🙂 Hope you have a good day!