Anyway, a little side note about getting free stuff from Craigslist. I've had quite a few people ask me how I get stuff from CL for free. I'm no expert on CL but have been pretty lucky. In case you haven't noticed but CL has a section that lists free items. All you have to do is contact the poster for the address or location of whatever you want to pick up. Most of the time, the free items are random junk which include old used and abused nicknacks but occasionally you will come across some good stuff. Usually the good stuff gets picked up and deleted within 30 minutes to an hour so you have to be fast.
Back to my beautiful desk. The last time I posted about my desk, it looked like this:
I asked my dad to remove the side weave-ish pattern thing because it was damaged. My wonderful dad not only removed that part for me but he even took it upon himself to sand the top of the desk. I was just planning to paint right on top of it but I'll take free labor. First thing I did was remove the two knobs and refinished them with my handy Rustoleum spray paint. Whole process took me literally five minutes from beginning to end.
Then I made sure I primed the whole desk with some Kilz stain blocking primer. I have about a quart of the primer left from another project so it didn't cost me anything to prime. This is how the desk looked this morning after being primed the night before:
Then, I used left over paint from the nursery to finish off this desk. Remember Emily and Kaley's room? I repainted their room a nice light gray/blue color called Gray Wisp from Benjamin Moore and had some left over paint so it got slapped onto this desk. Binh is extremely picky with his colors for the office because anything with colors aside from gray, black, brown, and blue is too feminine for him. He's convinced he will magically turn into a girl if I add any color to "his" room. So here is the desk today after the first coat of paint. I only did one coat of paint and went over to make some minor touchups where it was needed. I really like the color selection for this desk especially in this room because it matches the office really well. I could have just left it white but it would look boring next to the pale cream walls. If you notice our floors are gray marble tiles, the couch is black, and entertainment center is a medium gray. This desk is a light pale gray so it has a shabby chic look but still looks new and refreshed. I think with the right accessories, it will be a great desk in the room.
I also didn't like how the drawers looked so old and outdated so I lined it with some left over contact paper. I just measured and cut the contact paper to size. Whole process took under five minutes. Now I have a nice clean drawer to put my stuff.
Here's another side view of the desk. I should have filled in the wood chips on the side of the drawer. I didn't realize it would show that much. Its much more obvious in pictures. I think I can live with it for now. This desk isn't perfect but it was free. I can't wait to get rid of the spare desk and start decorating this desk.
Total cost for this project was free. I got the desk on CL for free and I used left over paint from another project.
I'm looking for two old chairs that I can refinish for the desk. I want to put a chair on each side since this desk/table will be on a large big empty wall. I have to find a way to fill up the empty space. I also have to look for large scale artwork to fill the space above the desk. I'm not sure if I will be up for shopping later since I'm so heavy now. I should be able to grab some goodies this weekend when Binh helps out with Emily but as for now I won't be doing much. I'll be back soon to showcase my new desk with her new accessories. I also need to find a way to protect the top of the desk. Since I'm pregnant and shouldn't be exposed to some of the protective top coats I'll wait til post delivery to finish it off.
And of course a before and after comparison:
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