Twenty Dolla Desk: The Dramatic Conclusion!

The desk is done! Are you ready? 

Are you sure?

 Let me show you the before one more time, just to refresh your memory. 

And now, complete and in its brand new home:

I KNOW! I'm pretty excited too.

Let's talk about those drawer fronts. After making the decison about what the desk would be and where it would go, the decision on the drawer fronts became easier. I'd been considering a Morrocan-inspired geometric stencil for a wall of the bedroom, so I began looking for one to use on the smaller scale of the drawer fronts. After perusing Royal Design Studio and only finding large, wall-sized stencils, I found a free printable quatrefoil pattern from the talented Jen of Tatertots and Jello. I reworked it in MS Paint to take the pattern from 6.5 inches square to a rectangle the same size as the drawers without losing the repeat. Then I printed enough to use one on each drawer (with the brightness set very high to conserve ink). 

Then I just cut the dark areas out carefully with scissors until only this beautiful lacy pattern remained.

It took a few drawers to perfect my technique, but the easiest way for me was to roll up tiny bits of tape and stick them in the thicker areas where the shapes meet. Glue dots would be even easier and cleaner, if you had some of those just lying around. I even tried using sticker paper but it didn't make it any easier to paint within the lines, and it's way too expensive to waste when plain paper will do. Some folks make homemade stencils out of transparencies or cardstock, which would definitely save some work.

Then I just took a little art fan brush dipped in a tiny sample-size pot of Benjamin Moore paint in Pear Green and swirled it on, doing my best to stay in the lines. This was latex instead of oil-based, so to fix it up I just carefully peeled off the paper, let it dry for a couple minutes, and scratched any messy spots off with my fingernail.

I priced knobs at Hobby Lobby, but even at 50% off I'd have been looking at a minimum of $20 just to replace hardware that I already kinda liked. So I just bought a $4.99 can of Krylon oil-rubbed bronze spray paint and slapped a coat on each. It didn't cover perfectly, but I actually like the peep of gold shining through. Krylon's oil-rubbed bronze is a little flatter and darker than my usual Rustoleum, but the sheer coverage of one coat made it look more or less the same.

Some of the drawers still stick, so they might need a squirt of graphite. I just tried to put the best ones on top!

I'm probably happiest with that dark, glossy, yummy desktop. I didn't dare to hope it would turn out so nice! I found the little table lamp at Gordman's, and moved the bowl from the office as a catch-all for pins and earrings and such. I'm going to be looking for a vintage ashtray for tiny things.

The chair came too, obviously.

And check out those jewelry displays! Those are a crazy-simple DIY I'll be showing you very soon.  Of course, the major thing this vanity space is missing is a mirror, but I'm taking my time to find the perfect one. 

For now, I'm just happy to look at it.

You can see all the steps of this transformation here.