I'm back! It's been a busy month to say the least. I apologize for the lapse in time, but there's been a lot going on around here. The biggest thing is that I just got a new computer. So needless to say that, along with the following project has kept my office in quite the state of chaos. So before you even start reading this post I'm just going to warn you that what is about to happen is totally and absolutely not necessary. I would put it in the category of a smidgen overkill. Yes I know, and trust I contemplated just keeping it the way it was. However I feel like by now you all have met me, and know how I roll.....so though totally on the level of "Uh...she's doing too much" none of you should be at all surprised by the following events.
So now that the disclaimer has been given and out of the way, let's get to the awesomeness at hand. My desk upgrade. Now my desk was designed in my head for at least a year before I even moved into this house. However my original idea (read all about that here) did not quite fit into the room the way I wanted, and so I decided it was time to finally make some modifications. This is the original desk.
The basic plan was to change the trim, the legs, and create a new top. As you can see below I've already removed the black and white design and trim from around the desk. The black and white design was just specialty paper that I bought from Michaels. The original trim was made out of 1 3/4" molding strips.
I stripped the sides and used my razor blade to clean up the edges and then resanded them down. I made a trip to Lowe's to get thicker trim at 2 1/2" wide. It was a little wider than I wanted, but I wanted the desk to have a little more of a weighted appearance.
I added the new trim around the edges using wood glue to set them and tape to hold them in place while it dried.
Then I gave the whole thing a fresh coat of white paint.
While the main piece dried I moved on to the top design. The original clear pieces sat right on top of the desk. Without them, the top was a little jagged and the rough spots were a lot more noticeable than I thought. This time around I decided to add a piece to set on the top to create a flat surface and also be used as an anchor for whatever design I choose. The desk itself is 48"x 30". The only thing I know that is that big is matboard, but while in Hobby Lobby I came across extra large foam board. Which happened to be thicker and cheaper.
I used my roll of large white paper. I wrapped the paper around the matboard and taped it on the back side to secure. Then I flipped the board over and began painting the top. I decided on a light gray with some sort of white design. I did need to test the paint first though. A lot of thinner paints make paper wrinkle upon application. So, I painted a test first to see how the paper would react before I did the whole thing.
As you can see the paper rippled. I took to Google and did some research on how to handle such a problem. I can't be the only person in the world using paint on paper. I found out that paper expands when wet and that is what causes the ripples. The solution is to wet the paper first and let it ripple and then stretch the expanded paper pulling the ripples tight. So I tried that. I spritzed the paper with a spray bottle filled with water, and laid down a thin coat of paint. Once it dried I restretched the whole thing around the matboard and secured it with tape on the back. Then I finished it off with a few extra coats of paint.
Once it was done and dry it looked lovely and ripple free.
With the surface painted I proceeded with my design. I wasn't sure what to do, but was mostly concerned about it clashing with the other design elements in the room. I had an idea for a giant flower. Why? Absolutely no clue. I am not even into flowers like that. I wish I had some thoughtful or overly creative and amazing inspiration, but I don't. That's just what popped into my head. I started with a sketch and just went in with white paint until I got the opaqueness I wanted. White paint is a difficult color to use to cover over something so it took quite a few coats to get perfect. I have to admit I was a little 'Eh' at first because it wasn't coming out the way I had imagined, but I kept going. The closer I got to the end, I started seeing it coming together.
For the last piece, I made a top for my set of drawers that sit next to my desk. I had this idea/epiphany to make an extension piece that would make the drawers the same height as the desk and thus the whole thing appear as one piece. I used scrap wood from my stash. Using my jigsaw I cut out a rectangle, and used the same 2 1/2" pieces I used for the desk trim for the sides.
The piece was meant to sit completely on top of the drawers. I used wood glue to add all of the side pieces to the top and set it aside to dry. The piece didn't go as perfectly as I hoped, so I had to go in with my wood filler and extra wood glue to fill in the gaps and rough edges.
Once I flipped it over the top was nothing to marvel at either. There were uneven edges everywhere. So I decided to add a hard cover to the top. I was working on another project and had some 4 inch balsa wood lying around. I cut it into pieces and glued it down to the the top. Once it was done, I added wood filler into the grooves and smoothed it out.
Once it dried I gave the whole thing a light sanding and a few coats of white paint.
I added the extra side piece on top of the drawers and pushed it next to the desk.
My new updated desk area.
I must say I'm quite impressed. Not that I didn't like the other desk, but I am really digging this one (For now that is....) I like the light color of the gray, and it seems to be more in line with the rest of the office. Oh and I bet some of you are wondering what happened to the legs. Well I went through lots of ideas. That's partially what took so long. I actually came up with an idea that I liked. However, half way through designing the first leg I decided I wanted to just keep the ones I had. When I returned the pieces to Michaels, the checkout guy said "I take it you changed your mind?" Yup, pretty much. It happens. All and all I am pretty excited to have this project checked off the list, and have my office back. Until then....it's on to the next project
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