$10 desk: Before and after

It's time for thrifty Thursday hosted by Leigh of Bloggeritaville, and Vintage Thingies Thursday hosted by Suzanne of Colorado Lady

Here's the before of the $10 desk, again. I don't know how old this is, but it has names scratched inside the drawers. I left them there. They're meant to be left there. I think this was an old teacher's desk. I really haven't done anything but this for the last 2 weeks, after all, it is 110 outside (and in the garage )


Here is a before of the office:


And, here's the after: (the office is a work in progress)

Here are the steps that were taken:

1. Removed hardware. Stripped the veneer from the top and sanded it down all over.

2. Filled large gouges on top of desk with Elmers wood filler

3. Sanded again

4. primed with white Kiltz stain blocker

5. painted with Behr Premium Plus Saturn Gray in eggshell

6. chugged at least 2 large bottles of gatorade. . . in a row

7. Primed hardware with Rust-oleum rusty metal primer

8. Sprayed hardware with Rust-oleum Metallic finish (Oil Rubbed Bronze)

9. Applied 2nd coat of Behr paint to desk

10. Distressed desk

11. Locked my keys in the car because it was in the driveway instead of in the garage. There was a desk in the way.
12. Top coated desk with minwax polycrylic. 2 coats

13. Lined desk drawers with scrapbook paper (mod podge)

14. Let's be fair, the Golfer re-attached the hardware. . . and moved the desk inside. . . and moved the old desk out. What a good hubby!

I love how it turned out! I especially love that I can fit my printer in the left side and the shelf slides out. I also love the drawer liners! Not bad for a $10 Goodwill find!

Giddy

We wandered into Goodwill on Saturday. . . it was meant to be. There it was, sitting there so lonesome, wearing nothing but a 19.99/week 29 sticker. "Don't worry," I said, "I'll bring you home with me." We took the ticket to the front, and, what do you know. . . it was 1/2 off! Turns out that week 29 was the special of the day. $9.99 oh bless my soul! The golfer and I squished it into the back of the trailblazer and tied the back closed (with 3 kids and me strategically placed in the leftover space.) Sometimes you do what you have to do to save an extra trip. . . even with the Goodwill employee eyeing you as though you'd lost your marbles. After all, he did hear me whispering comforting words to a desk.

In the picture, the front pencil drawer has been removed and is off to the side. The golfer had already started taking off the hardware. See, he was anxious too! (The left side is a door that opens up to reveal a slide out shelf. . perfect for the computer hard drive.) We stripped the cheesy veneer from the top to expose the lovely wood underneath and I headed to the store to pick up some heavy duty primer. The sides and back are wood veneer. I'll keep you posted on the finished product. . . along with a home office transformation. It's good to be back in creative mode.