Desk Restoration Fun

We've been searching for a desk that would fit into the office or the nook upstairs for months. Everything we found that we liked had horrible reviews-mainly cheap construction- and we didn't want to spend the $$$ on a nice solid wood desk that we'd have to move in a year an a half. One day while searching Craigslist for something I stumbled upon a free desk that was located in our small little town (yippee for not having to drive 30min +) an I jumped at  it. I forward the link to Ian and we both agreed it needed work, but we were up for the challenge.

Ain't she a beauty? My first thought was that it would make a great sewing table, but the need for a office desk comes before my side hobby. We both agreed that if we could make the desk over for less than $50 we had made a good decision. Needless to say the first trip to Lowe's was a bit of a shock since we didn't have ANYTHING to start the project with, our ideal budget went out the window. I had been looking at photos online to get an idea on what to do and fell in love with a turquoise desk and surprisingly didn't have to talk Ian into doing it in that color. With our color picked, primer, brushes, sand paper, and tarps purchased we were ready to begin!

The desk was obviously old when we picked it up, but I didn't notice the little things that were wrong with it until we got it into the garage. The side panels were splitting and there were a few more cracks then we had thought. So another trip to Lowe's for wood glue, putty, and tools was in our future.

Finally everything was dry and we were able to prime the desk. Honestly, I thought this would be a weekend project, I was definitely wrong. Everything is a learning experience, right?




Oh, no!

 Clearly, this wasn't the beautiful color we had in mind. Although it screams South Florida, we didn't necessarily think it would work in our house. In our defense when I took the paint back to Lowe's to return it, the sales guy agreed that the paint didn't really match the sample, so I don't feel bad about hating it so much. We had to brainstorm what color to chose next since there was no going back to refinishing the natural wood, and decided on a washed grey and love it!

During the week while we were re priming the desk I noticed a neglected bookcase Ian has had for years that wasn't being used for much in our dining room, so since we had enough paint and primer we decided to have a matching office set. You can see a small part of the bookcase in the picture above, I didn't think about taking pictures of the before and after, but it was a mossy green color.




Finished!!

 So with some new polished silver drawer pulls, the desk is complete! I absolutely love it and it fits perfectly upstairs in the nook. The grand total for what we ended up putting into the desk was far more then we wanted, but still below what we would've spent getting one from a big box store. Plus, we get the satisfaction of knowing 'we did this!'