A True Bargain

To date, this is one of my proudest "before and after" projects, but wouldn't you know it, I don't have a true "before" picture.  Not long ago our computer crashed and we lost about two years worth of pictures (but, hopefully my super talented hubby can work magic.  Fingers and toes crossed.)  I do have some during and after pics, so I thought it was worth a post.

Now that my daughter is gearing up for 1st grade (seriously, where have the years gone?) I thought she'd be needing a desk.  Her bedroom isn't very roomy, poor thing, so the desk would have to be simple and streamlined.  One day while browsing through a Goodwill I stumbled across a desk, a simple, streamlined desk, and get this....it was on sale.  What?  Goodwill marks down prices?  You bet your bottom dollar they do and I snagged this desk for a whopping $3.99.  Holla!

All right...stop holla'ing so loudly because there were a couple of things that weren't so great about the desk.  First off, water damage at the bottom.  My husband had to cut off about 2 inches due to water damage.  Secondly, cigarette smoke damage (at least we think that's what the musty dingy smell is from.  That or either the combination of water damage and being stored in a basement down...down...below.)

First step, sand the heck out of it.  See, if I had a real before picture you'd be able to see that the desk had been painted?  stained?  into a deep burgundy color.  After sanding and filling in holes, it was time for primer.  Not a coat, or two coats, but three coats of primer.  After coating the desk with primer it was time to roll on the paint:  Antique White.  I used one of those foam rollers for the first time and was pleasantly surprised at how well it went on.  To add a little something different I painted the drawers Ballet Pink.  On each of the drawers I added a wooden applique I found at Home Depot for about $3.00 a piece.  My biggest splurge was on the drawer pulls, which I found at Anthropologie.  They may have been a splurge, but they certainly are the icing on the cake.

We ended up finding a very simple chair at IKEA that we painted the same color as the desk.  As my daughter grows, we will have to cut a couple of inches off the legs of the chair--don't forget, we had to cut the desk down because of the water damage.