Shazaam! Desk Redo

Just before school was out for the summer, the boys’ school had a few old desktops for sale at very reasonable prices, so I bought one.  Keyboarding is a challenge for our oldest, and I certainly am not crazy about letting him practice on my laptop or desktop. 

With this used computer, he can play practice games as well as games on CD.  He will not be able to access the internet, much to his chagrin.  Our internet here is a wireless card, where we pay by the usage for date.  Ack.  You can imagine how Lego and Netflix downloads would suck that up, if I didn’t have control over it!

But we needed a desk to put said computer on in his room.  We visited the local thrift shop back in June and found one that was perfect for our needs.  Sturdy and cheap. And not too large.  He picked paint colors (with a little guidance from the Stampin’ Up! Color Coach) and we bought sample sizes of a pale turquoise and a schoolhouse red. We also bought a craft size bottle of chalkboard paint for the top and new drawer pulls.


After we tried to give our kids e coli Sunday, I came home ready for a project.  We finally started on this one, and it went very quickly.


We painted it Sunday evening.  The hooligan got to help, since it’s for his room. Sadly, the only paintbrushes we could find were little sponge ones that I got 20 for $1 at Joanns.  But they worked fine.


Monday night, my GI Joe drilled some new holes for the top drawer handle, and we replaced the hardware.  Then an extra coat of the blackboard paint, just to make it thicker on top, and we were done.

I think it turned out wonderfully, especially since we spent less than $40 total for the desk and the supplies.  The drawer pulls cost more than the desk, by the way.

It reminded me of how much I enjoy refurbishing furniture…maybe I’ll add that to my list of things to fill my spare time!