Saturday, April 14, 2012

My 'New' desk...

A few weeks ago, I bared all and shared with you our master bedroom. It has been a bit of a mess for a while now, as explained, it has been the dumping ground for anything and everything. Well we have taken the first step to making it our little sactuary again, and somewhere that I can be creative, when the kids have gone to bed.

I would have desperately loved an Ikea desk, however we don't own a money tree, damn hey, and when I mentioned to my parents that I needed somewhere to sit and scrapbook at night instead of the floor, my Dad offered me an old desk he had at his workshop, that I could have if I wanted it.. The ever generous soul, he truely is the most kind and caring man, and would give you his last dollar if you needed it! Not quite knowing what to expect, my Mum sent me a photo , as below, and I saw potential. ( I had to look past the Man-mess, boxes and dodgy phone photo). It was delivered the next day and we hubby, set to work the following weekend.

 Before
Sorry I forgot to take a before shot, but you get the picture!!

 During

Instagram photo, and DH at work!!

The desk is actually more of a sideboard or hall table I think, so with the height of the original legs, I could not sit at it on the chair I wanted to. I had thought of just raising the height of the legs but they wouldn't have looked very nice, so we just chopped them off, and replaced them with gorgeous turned ones from Bunnings ( about $15 each, pricey I know, but we got the desk for free , and we had left over vouchers from a Christmas present , so we only had to fork out $20)
It got sanded with a palm sander next (stuff sanding it by hand!) and a coat of primer , in  a spray can.
When that was dry, a few coats of white spray paint, some new hardware , I used glass knobs that I had bought a few years ago for a project and didn't end up using . THESE are super cheap and would look pretty cool too, or even THESE which we have used on our Billy bookcases in our living room.
Leave to dry , give it a clean and time for the fun part!! Setting it up! Yippppeee

In place, so that if ever, (yeah right) I get to scrapbook during the day, I can gaze out the window!
         The gorgeous glass knobs, I just love them and they complete the desk beautifully!


And set up with my chair (spare from our dining table as Stella is using a Junior Chair)

                                                                            After


     And the perfect turned legs, they look fantastic and have changed the whole look of the desk!

And the day I set it up, it had to be christened. And it felt GREAT to sit somewhere, and play, and when I needed to stop (only for Angus as the big 3 were with their Grandparents), I could just get up, and close the door. Perfect


And another fruit from our labour , a layout I did last night for a scrap challenge.


Thats it!! Easy peasy! AND CHEAP! Got to love that!
Its not the biggest desk in the world, actually its probably the smallest, and in terms of scrapbooking it makes working a little harder, but its almost a good thing! The more you spread out, the more you make mess, and I work out of my Scrap bag, and it sits next to me, and I love it!

The total cost of the project;
Desk - $0 (given to me)
Legs - $20 (we had a voucher)
New knobs - $0 ( I already had them)
Primer and Paint- $7 ( Just one can as my lovely Dad gave us the others)

For those that asked for a post, sorry it has taken so long, but I hope you find inspiration to do up something old. Whether it be a piece of your existing furniture to update, or something you might pick up at a Garage sale or kerb side pickup, there is potential in everything!
And now I have done it, I find myself checking out everything that is a bit dated, its rather addictive!


3 comments:

  1. I love your beautiful new desk. It's better than anything one could buy from Ikea. You are a very clever lady. It's also very Sarah Richardson!

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  2. I love it, it's goregous, perfect solution on the legs.

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  3. I LOOOOOVE it!

    So INSPIRING!

    You guys are amazing. You do so much, & always stay so amazingly within budget!

    I've smiled so much pouring through your blog tonight.

    Thankyou so much :)

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Thankyou for taking the time to read and more importantly comment on my blog. They are all so appreciated! Liz x