From the Desk of Sarah
Last summer, I was looking for a lot of furniture. As a recent college graduate beginning a new career, I needed a desk for my home office. As I began looking in furniture stores, I realized there were two choices: super tiny - like just barely fits your laptop and a coffee mug - and sort of in my price range, ORRR spacious executive desks starting no lower than $600.
Enter craigslist.
I began scanning the entries daily and finally came across a promising one. The seller graciously included dimensions and I knew it was the perfect size. It looked a little worse for wear, but the listing advertised solid wood and it was only $125. I took a risk and asked if they would take $100. I got an affirmative response and commandeered my dad, his truck and his strength. We had to go 30 minutes north on 301, take all six drawers out and maneuver the massive, HEAVY desk around three doorways, four dogs and a toddler, but it was worth it.
My dad and I snuck grins back and forth as we left the dirt road. We'd gotten a steal, found a gem. This thing has great bones ... we thought after a cursory examination. We held our breaths the whole way home for fear that we were wrong. I was already dreaming of the hardware I'd use to replace the draw pulls.
When we pulled the desk off the truck at home, he immediately took a wet cloth to the top. "You can't paint this!" my woodworking father proclaimed. He was right. And we were right about the great bones. So here's what I ended up with:
I knew sanding and staining the legs and drawers would be a pain in the you-know-what and was definitely looking for an easy, glamorous upgrade. So I jumped on the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint band wagon. I bought Antique White from Decor in Carytown and painted the whole body with several coats and a layer of clear soft wax. I lightly sanded the top of the desk and covered it with three coats of Polyurethane. I picked out some hardware from Home Depot. All in all, I probably spent about $50 on paint and supplies to spruce it up. $150 total. Much better than the $600 desks of the same size.
I'm super happy with how it turned out. My new apartment has a little 9' x 10' room the complex totes as a sunroom (it has large windows, but let's face it, "sunroom" is a hyperbole) that I made into an office. In early evenings, the sun shines across my beautiful desk and makes me proud. It's amazing how much more I care about the pieces of my apartment that I've sweat over. And believe me, since I worked on the desk in the middle of July, there was quite a lot of sweat involved.
Which reminds me, I'm so sick of winter. I know we've got quite a bit to go, but it's a cold world out there people. Too cold for painting craigslist furniture in your garage. Too cold for yard sales. It gets dark too early to make me want to anything. It's a curl up on the couch and watch Netflix season, but I'm getting tired of it. Okay, pity party over.
The point is, it feels good to sweat over something that you get to show off. Sweat a little and Dabble on y'all.
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