My New Old Desk

And the surprising item inside

If you have been following along for a bit, my husband found me an antique desk on Facebook Marketplace a few weeks ago. We were both traveling over the holiday, and we agreed on a price and date to pick it up. Sunday travel home last week was long, cold, and snowy. The 7 a.m. flight wasn’t ideal, but it also meant we had a productive Sunday ahead of us.

I arrived at the house and was immediately shown downstairs to the desk. The woman gave me the backstory that her mom bought it a long time ago in Connecticut. They just moved into a new house, and it didn’t fit the aesthetic. She wasn’t a huge fan of antiques, a win for me. This is the exact type of desk I had been looking for.

I shared with the woman that I was a blogger and that I had just completed my first book. The desk will be used for a lot of future writing. She casually mentioned that she studied abroad in Paris many years ago.

The desk drawers were emptied before I arrived, and we both took one end of the desk to carry it up the stairs. Then, out fell a metal Eiffel Tower, the kind from the souvenir shops in Paris. We both looked at each other and laughed, it is a sign!

My husband and I drove the desk home, and it was carried up to replace my old desk. There was nothing wrong with my old desk; it just didn’t fit our aesthetic, and we were looking for something less modern and an antique. I am trying to find a new home for it in Chicago and am not interested in selling it. The desk is where I wrote the book and where so many parts of the blog and the Paris Guide were written. It is still sentimental.

I spent the evening cleaning up my desk, organizing, and tossing old papers. The new desk was given a wipe-down inside and out. There was barely a spot of dirt or dust in the drawers. What amazes me still is how the Eiffel Tower was hidden in the desk.

We still need to hang art above the desk, which is what is hiding behind it. I may switch it out now that we have found the desk and choose something different. The post-it note on my computer says, “write from the heart,” a reminder for me as I work.

I organized the contents of my old desk, including cards, cords, and keys. When I first moved to Paris, I put all my belongings in storage. This is the keychain I still have from 2013. A perfect match. The two sit side by side in the new desk as a reminder of the old owner and the new.

Desk lamp: Sézane; glasses: Warby Parker; notepad; and hand cream.

I can’t wait to see what I create in this new space. Next, I need to find a desk chair; my friend Abby is searching for me. We have an office chair now, but I want a better-looking chair.