Putting The Office Together: Dumpy Desk Makeover

Who knew when I found this little baby in the "Mart of Doom" that I would wind up liking her as much as I do.

To say she had some issues would be an understatement.  Check out the rust from the nails that were holding this on...

Gotta love the dirty stained fiberboard with quarter round to trim it out.  I found her in a darkened corner covered in junk and surrounded by tons of stuff.  I almost passed her by, but then I asked for a flash light.

After looking her over real good, even crawling on the floor to look underneath to figure out what in the heck was going on with the top, I figured the $35.00 asking price wasn't too bad.  Not great, but not bad either.

So, when I got her home, I pried off the fiberboard and trim with a spatula.  Remember that?  LOL!  You know, because I couldn't find one of my three hammers in my crap pile in the office?  LOL!  Regardless, it popped right off.  I decided to leave the base as is because I liked her age showing.  I just cleaned her up real good with some Krud Kutter.  You should have seen the filth that ran off of her.  N-A-S-T-Y!!  I must have dumped the bowl 5 or 6 times.  Then I sanded the living daylights out of the top and filled in the worst of the gouges with wood filler, while leaving some for character...

and then I sanded some more.

I primed her up but good, and then slapped a coat of chalk board white paint on the top.  Initially, I thought I'd dry brush her with my favorite paint color, but I just wasn't feeling it...

So, I re-painted it white and then glazed it with my go-to paint: Tall Cattail.  Better, but not great.

{Somehow I skipped a picture of this step.}

I thought about decoupaging the top with scrap book paper, but I didn't have enough of one kind of sheet.  Then I thought about book or hymnal pages, but I just didn't know.  So, what to do when you're at a crossroads?  Let it be.  I left her overnight, while I slept on it.  I've learned in the last 7 months that its never a good idea to force it.  You always wind up hating what you did just to say it's done.  The idea will come when its damn good and ready and not a moment before.  ;)

I was flipping through my scrapbook paper the next morning and I came across this one...

And I kept coming back to it.  Alas, I only had 2 sheets.  :(  And I really liked it.

So, what'd I do?

Cut 'em all out.  It only took about an hour.

Then I decoupaged them on at random intervals.

And then poly'd the top with two coats and decoupaged inside the drawer with scrapbook paper, as well...

I was quite satisfied.

So, this is the before...

And after...

When paired with this chair from an antique store for $35...

and the DIY chalk board for $12 that used to look like this...

and now looks like this...

The top printable you can find from the Tip Junkie.
For some reason, the link would not work.  Just search craft room printables.
The bottom printable, I just made myself in Mac iWork Pages.

Put it all together and it fits me just perfectly, just as I had hoped (like really, really hoped that I hadn't made a huge mistake when I bought it all.  LOL)...

So for $70, I had a whole new office set up.

I think the thing I have fallen in love most with in this journey of makeovers and refurnishing, is that when you refurb something, it is one of a kind.  No one else will have anything just like it.  And you can make it to suite your taste.  Plus, you're saving furniture from landfills and giving it a new lease on life.  Stuff just isn't made like it used to be and with a little money, a little work, and some effort, you can have better quality items for a fraction of the cost.  BONUS!

I know there are some thrifters that would think that I paid too much for both pieces, but you can't even think about buying a solid wood desk for that price nowadays!  Heck, you can't even buy a laminate desk for that!  ;)  And my old desk got a much needed makeover.  But, we'll save that for tomorrow.

Until then y'all...  Have an awesome day!