Must. Make. Spring.

After the unseasonably warm temps this past weekend followed by the abrupt and appropriate temperatures for March 1st, I caught the inevitable touch of spring fever. So I made my way to our new Ikea and bought myself some greenery …

Fall Home Decor – Better Late than Never

Now that I’m about to take down all of my fall decor and decorate for Christmas, I thought it wouldn’t hurt to share some photos of how I made my small space festive for autumn. Side note: in the past …

Desk Revival

Hi friends. Here’s another “furniture flip” post, no shocker there. I found this desk at Savers, which is something like a Goodwill but slightly nicer in my opinion. And in my usual fashion, I didn’t take a before photo before tearing the thing a part.

“How much did you pay for this fine piece of quality furniture?” I hear you asking. Well this was one of my luckier finds in that it set me back only $10. Yes, TEN DOLL HAIRS! So awesome.

I noticed that it was solid wood and heavy, so it seemed of good quality. I just had to look past the atrocious paint job and stenciling. And you might be thinking that it looks kind of cute and distressed, but in real life, it wasn’t. It was kind of yellowing and dirty looking. Here are a couple of close ups.

 

I began by cleaning the heck out of it (thanks to Mom for pitching in on this part) with Murphy Soap, removing the drawer pulls, and using a palm sander in some places that needed it. Then I started painting with my main ivory color all over.

I have been in a coral phase lately where I’ve been wanting to incorporate the fun and summery color onto a piece of furniture. I thought if I used that as an accent color, it wouldn’t be overbearing, so I just used it on the trim and the under-side of the desk. I spray painted the drawer pulls black for a pop and here is the final product!

She is currently residing in all of her glory at the Sweet Ashley’s Cottage booth at the Alton Exchange and I think she would be adorable in a little girl’s room-or not. I just enjoyed finally using coral. (With the same paint, I also did this director’s chair:)

Here are the before and after pictures one more time so you can see the difference:

Although I bought the desk for next to nothing, it was a big time suck. What began as a labor of love slightly turned into a labor of hatred. I just wanted to get the thing out of my garage because I simply could not sand and repaint it for the thousandth time. But that’s the way DIY goes. Little money but lots of elbow grease is the life I prefer to lead!