My desk before and after

This was my desk before. I had been looking for a desk to call my own at every garage sale and thrift store in town and only found ugly or over priced desks. My dad found out I was on the hunt and mentioned that he had one just sitting in a storage shed. Awesome! My parents live about 3 hours from me, I drive a Mini Cooper, and don't have an appropriate work area to fix up the desk so I worked on it whenever I visited.

Normally this desk would not be my style, but free was definitely in my price range! It was not completely hopeless looking though, and it is made out of maple and the drawers are super big... so I figured maybe I could make it more my style. The desk needed a ton of sanding, some new hardware, and a ton of love. At first I was thinking that I wanted to paint it a fun color... yellow, green... maybe some funky pattern, but I couldn't commit. So one whole year later I present to you my desk!


A couple of coats of clear polyurethane and some spray painted hardware (and a ton of travel time) and I have my very own workspace. The painting and owls I got at an antique store near my parents and the painting was only 6 dollars! The mermaid print is from here I love love love it.


The hardware I got from a little store near my parents for $ .59 each which is crazy cheap, but I didn't want to have plain brass hardware on my colorless desk.

So I spray painted them!

I also replaced the wooden braces that were on the front of the desk with some nifty spray painted cast iron ones.

So what do you think? Better?!

I love it and I have been using it everyday! It is perfect for sewing, crafting, blogging, and everything in between :)