Craft Desk Makeover

I needed a desk for my new office for crafts, sewing, scrapbooking, and such.  I found this unique desk at GW for $14.99 and new it was what I was looking for.  It was a little wobbly and was some sort of laminated wood...weird.  I could picture some cute little baskets sitting in the little cubby spaces.  I also found a chair that I could refinish *forgot to take before picture* that had U.G.L.Y fabric on the seat.  It was not even cushioned...just fabric stapled to the seat board.  BLEH!

A little black spray paint, a cute new knob, some fabric and foam and it was perfect!  It is not as organized as I would like it to be, as I am adding shelving above the desk soon!  Updated pictures to come soon!

I was going to replace the legs because the desk was not tall enough to fit a chair and myself under, but I decided that I liked the legs and just got out in my garage, found some scrap wood and made some blocks to glue and screw to the underside of the desk to raise it up.  I also added a piece of wood under the other side.  It helped stabilize the legs also, so no more wobble (which would be really bad for sewing!)

I found these little blue baskets at the Dollar Tree.  I need to go back and get a few more.  Right now I have photo boxes on the other sides.  

Excuse my mess inside the desk, but it has nice storage inside.

As you can see I am not the best photographer, but wanted to show how cute the knob is!  I love it.  I think I got it at Lowes.

I went to JoAnn's to look for fabric and thought this would go great with my green walls!  I couldn't decide which one I wanted for the seat, but went with the paisley.  I plan on making the striped fabric into a pillow for my chair (it is missing a back piece).  

This was so fun to recover.  Got my staple gun out, some foam, batting, and went to work.  The front is not as smooth as I wanted it to be, but oh well.  I think it looks really good!  

I really love the shape and curves of this chair!  

What do you all think? 

I would love to read some comments and any suggestions on shelving above the desk would be great!  My office reveal will be coming soon!

I AM LINKED TO:

Going to Paris on a budget..ooh la la

My daughter will soon be 13 and we decided that she needed a room that was a little more grown up.  Over the summer as we were preparing for our move, we were planning what the new room design would be.  She wanted a travel/parisian theme!  Of course I wanted to go pink and black, but she is totally against pink and wanted something red and black.  I was not really into that color scheme, but decided that it would be her choice.  I am so glad I listened to her, because it turned out fabulous!!   I made the curtains (but want to change them up a little--suggestions?) out of fabric that I got at JoAnns for ....6 yards for $11.00!!!  :)  I do know how to sew, but could not find my sewing machine because it had not been unpacked yet.  I ran out and got some iron on hem stuff and went to work.  I am thinking of adding ribbon and making them more of a swoopy kind of valance. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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It has been sooo much fun going to thrift stores, garage sales, and Goodwill and spotting things that would go perfect in her new room!

 

 

We cannot decide what to do about adding a rug.  We would love to find a rug that does not cost too much and adds some flair to her large space.  I am also on the hunt for a chandelier that I can recycle.  The two throw pillows were on clearance at Hobby Lobby, but forgot how much.  I think maybe $4 each.  The center red pillow was from walmart and I splurged and paid $11 for it.  The red rug was from Big Lots..$6  She wanted a daybed look, but she only has a twin.  We just turned it sideways and added some pillows along the back.  The comforter was $19 at Walmart and the black pillow shams were only  $4 each.

She is learning the piano, so we have a keyboard.  I recently bought a vanity ($25), at a garage sale, with a stool and it is also a jewelry cabinet that will go in this place as soon as I get it painted and fixed up...post about that will be coming soon!  We found these tin plaques at Hobby Lobby for $4 each!

Now...for the Pièce de résistance.... my wonderful Aunt Lela saw the pictures of the room design and I was telling her about a dress picture that I was trying to buy on Ebay and was outbid and could not find another one and she said...."I think I have that same picture in my basement and will send it to you for ....FREEEEE!"  What??  Are you kidding?  I almost peed my pants!  I offered to pay for it, pay shipping, whatever she wanted, but she refused to take my money and sent it anyway.  I was sooooooo excited when it arrived.  It MAKES the room!  Thank you Aunt Lela!

Also while at Hobby Lobby, I found these signs for $4 each on clearance!  I got this shelf at a thrift store for $3....add a little black spray paint (my new best friend) and it is rockin!  So...what to put on the shelf??  I wanted to run with the hat shoppe theme of the pictures and new that I could find something cool at this great antique mall, so off we went to find something fancy!

We found some great hats, but wanted one with a veil.  We found one and paid $5 for it.   The little white stand is actually a doll stand from an old doll that we got at Goodwill and sent back to Goodwill a few years later..but still had the stand...oops!  Glad I kept it.   We also found a pair of gloves for $3 and a beautiful beaded purse for $6.  The little hat picture (which is a 3D wooden hat shadow box) was a Goodwill find for 99 cents!  The stand was from Dollar Tree for ....you guessed it..a dollar!

This is a current eye sore right now... we have to find replacement screws for the dresser hardware...ignore that..lol.  I got some hat boxes for 99 cents each at GW.  The mirror was a Big Lots find for $20.

Got this down-filled pillow at a garage sale for ...$2!  It is an expensive pillow...embossed velvet too!

These were three different GW finds and different stores!!  SCORE!  The candle holders (bought at two different times) were each 99 cents.  The vase was a great find at $2.99.  I love the shape of this and the size of it.  I have not figured out what to put in it yet!  Maybe a candle??

Another garage sale find...$2!!!  Whooo hoo.  I almost bolted out of the car when I saw this.  I almost caved and paid full price for one of these things....glad I had patience!

We wanted to spruce up this lamp shade and saw these cool vintage chandy crystals at an antique store for  50 cents each.  I grabbed them and just poked them through the lamp shade.  They look great with the light shining through.

I repainted the letters that she had in her room before.  I spray painted them black and then added some dots with the end of my paint brush and some acrylic paint from my supply.   The dots on the G are really crooked, but I decided to leave it...oh well.

Again...I almost died when I saw these two plates lying on a shelf at GW.  99 cents each!!  I had the plate hangers.  These are my favorite and one of the first finds for this room!

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I got this at GW and have not figured out what to do with it yet.  It was $1.99.  It is very heavy metal base.  I was thinking of making some kind of canvas sign to hang from it.  Any suggestions would be great?!!

Found these candle holders at Big Lots for $7.00 for two.  Battery operated candles are perfect for the ambiance.  They flicker and are real wax that smells like vanilla.  You can pick them up at Walmart for around $3 each! 

A GW find....this vintage mirror.  I decided to leave it "as is" because I loved the vintage brass feel.  I also picked up this ring holder for 99 cents.

 

 

I also wanted to gripe to tell you about the paint and furniture.   My daughter picked out the paint from Lowes.  It is called "Posh Red".  This paint looks great on the walls, but was such a pain to paint with.  It looks like blood and gets everywhere!  We had red paint on us, all over the drop cloth, on lots of damp cloths that we cleaned up our messes with..ugh!   It took about 3 coats and that was WITH primer before.  I will never paint with red again.  We also added a chair rail and was going to put up bead board, but it was not in our budget.  My solution was to just paint it white until we had the funds to add it.  This worked out well.  We still have to paint and fill the chair rail.   

Also, the dressers were a garage sale find from many years ago ($40 for all three pieces) and was painted antique white.  It seriously needs to be repainted, but that is for another day.  

Thanks for stopping by and please leave me comments and suggestions!

School Desks

At the beginning of the summer I knew that I wanted to get desks for the kids rooms. I went thrifting and found some great deals! I paid a little more for this first desk because I really wanted it. I think it was $20 because it was a consignment item.

A little bit o' magic with a can of Fire Engine Red spray paint and...............VOILA!!!

I then found a chair at GW for $5 and sprayed that the same color spray paint!

I added a blue seat cushion that I picked up at WM for $4 and it makes a perfect addition to his new Mario Bros. Room!

I also picked up the little tin buckets at Gee to the Dubbya! I think they were 50 cents each. He loves math and wanted to learn his times tables, so I got him a poster for above his desk.

So...then I went to GW and found this desk for .......99 cents!!!!!! It had some nasty corkboard on the back and had some nails sticking out the top. I took both of those off and cleaned out the drawers. I sanded it and painted it with Black Laquer spray paint. I then picked up some sheet metal from Lowes and glued it with Gorilla Glue to the back. The kids and I made some magnets with those clear stones (the kind you put in vases) from the Dollar Tree, some magazine cutouts, and Modge Podge! They turned out awesome, picture and tutorial to come later!

THE AFTER

I was super shocked at how good this turned out. He loves it!! I also picked up this dirty nasty metal chair for 99 cents. It was VERY grimy. A little cleaning and replacement of the seat cushion and backing (that was a vinyl) with some blue fabric and it was awesome!

I also put some black trim around the edges of the sheet metal with hot glue!

Oh...and the frame (which now has a picture in it), the boxes, and the lamp....all from GW! I think I spent a total of $4.00.

We added a silohette vinyl to his wall for the overall look. He loves his new room!

Back-to-school

School supplies-Check...Backpacks-Check...Lunch boxes-Check... So I guess it is about time to start getting organized. I got my daughter's volleyball schedule for August and quickly realized that we also signed both boys up for soccer and it will soon be chaotic with a million things to do once school starts. I have a cubby area next to the garage door that will be our go-to area for all schedules, calendars, school papers and such. I was not sure what to do with this area but I knew I had to do something. When we first moved in, I quickly hung up a bulletin board that I had, but it was not working so well because it is kind of dark in the space and hard to reach the back wall because of the shelf.

This space was becoming a catch-all.
I remembered that I had a shelf in the garage that would work. I picked this shelf up last summer at a garage sale for $3.00. I got my trusty spray paint and went to work. I wanted a satin finish and also wanted to distress it some. I put on two coats.

Then started sanding the edges with my block sander.

Love the distressed look

So I took down the bulletin board and got my trusty "Hercules Hooks"....Love these things!! I actually found some at walmart, but they were a different brand. They are easy to hang up and hold lots of weight!

I needed something to hold school supplies for homework and activities for the year. I got this set of cans (4 cans in a set) that had ducks on them. They were at Goodwill for 99 cents!! So...I grabbed some scrapbook paper, tags that I had, some ribbon, and my trusty Modge Podge!! I love that stuff!

Went to work adding the paper which was a little tricky trying to not get wrinkles or bubbles on these cans. It dried without too many bubbles.

Next, I needed some kind of system to keep activities organized and remembered that I had a dry erase board that was also magnetic that was hanging on the bottom of a chore chart that I never used...perfect!

I printed out my kids names on some white cardstock. I used the font..My Underwood..because I loved that it looked like old typewriter font.

I had a roll of magnetic strip that was sticky on one side. I cut it to length and peeled off the back and attached my cardstock name.

I then took a permanent marker to outline the board because I wanted to keep the days separated. I found these cool day of the week magnets at walmart for only a few dollars! They were exactly what I needed for this project. I already had these in my office.

I added a calendar that I already had under the board. I placed each kids name at the top. Now I can keep track of where everyone needs to be, who has snack day at school, school programs, etc.

Added my cans to the shelf. I also picked up these two jars at Goodwill for 49 cents each! :) I have push pins in one and pencils in the other. We can never have enough pencils in this house and hopefully now everyone where be able to find one for homework.

I added a colored pencil can, glue, scissors, crayons. I LOVE the way this looks.

The AFTER! I also had these green cubby baskets that were in my office and not being used. This is great for papers that I want to keep or things that are needed for school projects! I put a file folder basket on the other side to hold important papers that I need to sign and return to school or for other important school information.