Re-purpose a Desk into a Changing Station!

I like to give my husband a hard time (as many of us do with our significant others) but I have to admit: the man steps up every single time I have some furniture based dream in my head. Whether that's a plan for a detailed wall collage, a made-up dresser design (post coming soon) or a baby changing table, I tell him what I want and he somehow magically makes it happen.

And y'all I'm going to be real honest with you. I love this changing table. I love it so much. But I've literally used it for changing diapers about a dozen times between our two children.  Oh it makes my husband so mad. He doesn't understand how awesome it is as a whole that it doesn't really need to be used for changing diapers anyways. Oops. (You never know what kind of a parent you are going to be until you are one, am I right? Turns out I'm a "change 'em on the floor" kind of mom).

So here it is as it stands in all its glory today:

Want to know the story? I'll keep it brief. I didn't love any of the changing stations that I found online or in stores. I honestly can't remember why, but they either didn't have the right kind of storage or I didn't like the color/material, etc. I explained to my husband the kind of drawers I was looking for (some very shallow for small things like nail clippers and diaper creme, others very deep for cloth diapers and receiving blankets) and he suggested that we use this old dorm room style desk that he had from college:

"That's perfect!" I thought, except I don't feel comfortable with the changing pad just sliding around on the top. So what did my amazing and patient husband do? He made a custom top for it that can easily be taken off so that someday we can use this as a desk again if we want! Here's what it looks like (pre-paint job):

It can also be flipped the other way so that the front has a lip on it instead. As you can see in the above and below photos, the wood goes down farther along the outside edges "locking" it onto the desk so that it doesn't slide around.

He made sure to include an open but boxed in area for me to keep things I didn't want to get in and out of drawers every time to use (like the wipes warmer which literally never got used- again, you don't know what you're going to use until you're in it!)  This design is so simple and easy but really hit the nail on the head in becoming exactly what I wanted.


We then painted the top attachment and the original desk in a taupe/light brown color (to match my son's Peter Rabbit Nursery)  Here's how it looked in my son's room (first photo) and then now in my daugher's room (second photo):

{Using a desk also allows you to have the perfect space underneath for a laundry basket or trashcan. We had the tall trashcan for cloth diapers off to the side}

{I can't express the frustration I have with terrible lighting in my house. You'll hear me complain about it in almost every blog post. We have these amazingly adorable nurseries and you can't tell because even my best editing still looks like an old film camera! Anyone else? Commiserate with me!}

What do you think?

Are you sold on the idea of using already owned furniture to DIY your own diaper changing station? Not only are there some more options for styles/design but you've got great underneath storage for baskets AND best of all you can easily remove the top and keep using it long after your babe has outgrown the diaper phase! I'm so tickled that my husband came up with this for us and although I rarely change a diaper on it, it gets plenty of use and love every day!