How to Glam up your Desktop

They say an organized desk makes for an organized brain. That is definitely true in my case. When my surroundings are neat I just seem to function a lot better and am so much more productive. During the week though, my desk usually tends to get more cluttered, my download folder starts containing all kinds of crap and my desktop will fill up with screenshots, random documents and whatever else I couldn’t bother to sort away. Until the day when it all just becomes too much and a major clean out is due.

That was today. I was so liberated with the process that I went totally overboard and found a MAJOR game changer for your computer glam in the process that I could just not share with you. I stumbled on an article by the lovely Haley of Whatever Bright Things, explaining how to change the icons on your desktop. Am I late to the party? I didn’t even know that you could adapt the icons on your desktop from anything other than that lame dusty-blue color. Absolutely brilliant! I immediately tried it, it worked, and my mind is now forever blown.

Would you like to try it? Here’s is how you too can glam up your desktop:

Step 1 – Find/ create the icons of your choice

I am not a designer so rather than creating my own icons (maybe someday…) I downloaded icons from one of my favorite sources: flaticon.com. If you are registered on the site (it’s free, no worries) you can search and adapt all of their icons and then download them in different colors, sizes, and formats. Super easy!

I went for a simple and beautiful round icon, but you can choose any type you like. Just make sure to download your icon in png format to get the transparent background.

Step 2 – Open and copy your icon

Once downloaded, double click on your icon so that it opens up in the “Preview”. Now go up to the “Edit” section and copy your image.

Step 3 – Insert your image

Next, you go to your desktop folder and click on “Get Info”. The information tab will open and in the top right corner, you will see the original folder icon. Tap on it and again move up to the “Edit” section and click on paste. Voilá, there is your brand new icon!