Desk Acquisition and Transformation

Our newly blue room needed a desk. After a search of what was available, I was pretty much resigned to building a simple desk using either a finished tabletop from Home Depot or finding a tabletop from the reuse store. I'd use our filing cabinet as one "leg" and attach the other side to the wall. Not very flashy, but it'd do and do well.

But then, the very day I finished painting the blue room? I found the perfect desk. We wanted long and narrow. We wanted it to be 5-6' long and 18"-24" wide. This desk was 5' long and 18" wide. Whoa. We also didn't want it to have too many drawers, since we knew those drawers would soon get cluttered if we did.

So, without further ado, here is the desk, as it looked when I lugged it home in my car. Oh, and I should add that it was ONLY $25!!!!! Swoon.

The desk used to be a vanity, many years ago. We love the legs and the lines. It's a very beautiful piece. The beige paint though... not so beautiful. But before I go into how I tackled the paint, I'll first show off the desk a bit.

Two small drawers on either side:

And, my favorite part: The center portion of the desk lifts up to reveal a center compartment and a mirror.


However, the beige paint had to go. It was too thick to easily take it off and refinish the desk, so I decided to sand and paint the desk a glossy white. But first, I had to remove the drawers and lid of the desk and sand down the painted portions.

The center lid got painted separately:

And here's the main desk portion partway through!


Finally, the desk got moved up into the office. I think I'll eventually add handles to the two drawers, but they each have a curved side, making it very easy to open them even without handles.
I'll need to add liner to the drawers. I was a bit unhappy that I got paint on part of the inside, but this is not the end of the world, and I will probably be the only one to ever be irked by it.


And I do swoon over the center console portion. I think I will be reinstalling the mirror too. It doesn't hurt anyone, and it's just so nifty!

(I apologize for the tilted shade; It was hitting the wall and I didn't realize!) I do love that our Buddha lamp has a perfect home on top the desk. It is very calming and beautiful to have it there.

Ahh, and our next project: Refinishing this file cabinet to match the desk. We'll likely use the same hardware on the file cabinet as we eventually choose for the desk. The fish (used to house spare change) and succulents normally live in the living room, but they've been shipped off to the office while Christmas decorations take over the rest of the house.

So that's our desk! We're still astounded at the price and how perfectly it fit our room. I guess sometimes you do get what you need!