Revamping My New-Old Desk

I’ve wanted my own work space for ages. Hubster and I shared a desk in our office-come toy-storage area.

He got annoyed when nail varnish, crochet and other paraphernalia got left on said desk and I got annoyed when I had to wade through 16 copies of farming papers and paperwork to blog.

It was during a heated exchange that I decides enough was enough and I started scouring ebay for a vintage drop-down desk.

It didn’t take me long-I get whims like this quite a bit. The one I had my eye on was in the next town along. I waited until the last minute and then submitted my bid.

I could hardly believe me luck. I got it for £5.

Hubster went and collected it for me as it wouldn’t have fitted in my car and the planning began.

Originally, because it was so close to Christmas, I was going to spruce up the inside and leave the outside as it was. What can I say? The paint brush ran away with me.

I managed to get a tin of Laura Ashley Eau de Nil in the sale and waited for the kids to be in bed.

As always happens here, I couldn’t find any rollers or paint brushes so I did the first coat with a kiddy paint brush. It took ages.

Thankfully, my Dad came to the rescue the next day with a mini roller and I carried on. I found a tester pot of my favourite ever colour-Shrimp Pink by Little Greene Paint Company and added beautiful pink accents.

Then I discovered what can only be described as amazing- a Metallic Leafing Pen by Rust-Oleum. You just add the gold pen on the corners and other places where ageing would naturally occur.

I also got a lavender coloured tester pot to spruce up an old wooden chair and got busy with the Metallic Leafing Pen again (imagine my whole house with gold accents now).

I got a but of wallpaper off cut and glued it onto the drop-down writing part of the desk and painted over it with PVA glue.

Then I only had to add the accessories-pretty tea cups, jugs for pens and a rose scented reed diffuser so that every time I open my desk to work, I am greeted with the fresh smell of roses.

Beautiful.

The funniest part of the whole process (apart from using a child’s paint brush) was the lock was broken so I unscrewed it and took it to my local lock smith. To fix the lock and provide a working key cost £15-more than double the price of the desk.

 

For £20 (plus the price of the paint), I am so pleased with my new work space.

Let’s hope it inspires me from now on.