Coolest Desk Chair Ever!

My son is in his junior year of high school.  It feels like a minute ago he was just starting Kindergarten!  As I'm sure so many of you know already, junior year is the most work intensive year.  Tons of class work in addition to preparing to take the SAT/ACT exam.   I have heard about it from friends with older kids, but underestimated just how much work my son would have to do this year.  I am all about organization, so when I saw the work-load, I came up with a plan.

  He has had a desk in this bonus room space for years.  It was my husband's desk from when he was growing up.  It's a solid wood desk in perfect condition with a leather top.  

Up until now, this is what his desk usually looked like.  He was a fan of doing his homework at the kitchen table and pretty much boycotted using his desk.  After the first week of school and my son attempting to do his work at the kitchen table (and disrupting the entire household by us all having to be quiet), it was time for him to start using his desk!

I started by cleaning up his desk.  Giving him a clean, inviting workspace was the first step in my plan.

For the first time that night he did all of his homework at his desk.  He was amazed how quiet it was in his bonus room and how he was able to focus so much better.  The chair is my husband's original desk chair as well.  Not exactly the most comfortable chair.  Now that my son was actually using his desk, I wanted to do whatever I could to encourage him to continue to use this space.  So I splurged...

Introducing the coolest desk chair ever.  What a perfect chair for my son's sports-themed room.  This chair is reminiscent of a baseball glove.  The desk chair is from Pottery Barn Teen, and yes, it was a bit expensive.  But I had looked at so many other chairs at local stores, and any of the comfortable ones were way too wide and oversized, and honestly not that much less than this one.  It's called the Trailblazer Glove Swivel Chair.

It's comfortable, it's a great size and my son loves it.  It's helping make the 3-6 hours of homework a night more palatable.  

So happy he is actually using his desk now!

-Judy

Easy Desk Update

This weekend I did a simple update to my daughter's desk in her room.

If you remember, this desk was originally a Craigslist find for $30.

After painting this desk with chalk paint and reupholstering the chair, I added a piece of clear acrylic to the top.  It was one of the smartest things I did, no longer having to worry about the top of the desk being damaged.  It also gave me an opportunity to add a pop of color by using scrapbook paper underneath the clear acrylic top.

The scrapbook paper was colorful, but it was never exactly right.  

I was always on the lookout for something a little bit better.

When I saw this wrapping paper at Home Goods a few weeks ago, I thought it would be perfect for my daughter's room.  I have been very impressed with the wrapping paper I have bought in Home Goods.  It is all very substantial and great for so many different projects.

I took the clear acrylic off the desk and used it as a guide to cut the wrapping paper to size.

It changed the look immediately.

Then I thought I would get really crafty and cut out pieces of wrapping paper to fit the fronts of each of the drawers.  I glued it to card stock so that it wouldn't curl or bend. 

What a difference a little wrapping paper can make!

For the side drawers the card stock is so sturdy that it didn't need to be 

adhered in any other way other than being held on with the handles.  

For the center drawer I added a little mod podge to the edges to keep it all in place.

The color is beautiful and picks up on all of the decor and accessories in my daughter's room.

You could do this with any desk you have.  The clear acrylic was bought at Home Depot and we cut it to size at home.  It was inexpensive as well.  You could add fabric or paper to match any decor.  

My daughter loves the update!

I can't wait to hear what you think.

-Judy

Sharing with Saavy Southern Style

Craigslist Desk Makeover

I have been on the hunt for a desk for my daughter's room for months now.  

Currently she uses a parsons table we had in the attic.  It fit great, but it has no storage which was a bit of an issue.  

On my hunt on Craigslist, there were several criteria that  the desk had to meet.  For starters it needed to have drawers.  It also needed to be no wider than 42".  Most desks seem to be 48".  With her current room furniture arrangement, a 48" desk just wouldn't work.

Then last week I came across this desk on Craigslist.  They were asking $40 for this Thomasville desk and chair.  After making a deal to pay $30 over the phone I went to pick it up with my dad (my rule of thumb is never go pick up a Craigslist purchase alone).  When I got there I discovered that it wasn't technically a Thomasville.  It was a Huntley by Thomasville, which apparently is a lower line of furniture that they made twenty years ago.  It still seemed to be well made, and I considered walking away from it, but for $30 how could I go wrong.  So in the end I packed it up into my mini van and away we drove.

When I got home I started the disassembly.  When I flipped the chair over to remove the seat it turned out that it wasn't even screwed on.  It was only glued.  I could remedy that.

Another potential issue was that the top seemed to be made of formica.  If not formica, something that had a tough top coating as there wasn't a scratch or dent on the top and the piece is 21 years old.

 The top desk drawer had a painted floral motif.

Luckily that sanded off very easily.

Now it was time to start painting.  I used Annie Sloan chalk paint in Old White which I had in the house already.  My goal was to not spend anymore than the $30 I purchased the desk for.  I used a regular paint brush for the entire desk.  Then after it dried I could see the brush strokes on the top of the desk, so I sanded it all off and used a sponge brush instead on the top only.  It worked perfectly.  I do love that the chalk paint seems to adhere to any type of surface, including whatever the top of this desk is made of.

For the chair, I had a half a can of spray paint in Heirloom White left over from a past project.  By the way...the Heirloom White spray paint is almost exactly the same color as the Old White chalk paint.  I used the spray paint as a base coat which made it so easy to paint something so curvy.  Then I used the old white as a second coat, but didn't have to be perfect in my painting as the two colors are almost identical.

Then I finished the desk off using the clear wax.  I applied it to the desk with the wax brush and then buffed it using a cloth. I also used the cloth to apply the wax to the top of the desk to avoid anymore brush strokes.

I updated the knobs using a silver sharpie pen.  

I used the sharpie to highlight the details of the knobs and handles.

Finally I reupholstered the chair using fabric I had on hand, just waiting to be used on a project like this.  I used screws to attach the cushion.

Here is the finished product:

I love how it came out.

Now my daughter has a beautiful desk with plenty of storage, which will leave the top more available for work to be done.

One more look at the before and after:

I can't wait to hear what you think of this.  I always love and appreciate your comments.

-Judy

My Daughter's Room - The Big Reveal

As you know I have been working on redoing my ten year old daughter's room for some time now.  I have tried every furniture configuration you can imagine (thanks to those handy gliding furniture movers).  I think I have the best layout to maximize space in her space challenged room.  I think I have also made it a pretty, calming space for my ten year old taking into account the colors she wanted (it all started with her wanting a room with aqua in it) and that she wanted to keep her daybed.  Here is the final reveal.

Much of what you see I made in her room.

That beautiful chandelier is a Schonbek we purchased for her a few years ago.

The bedskirt and the euro shams were easy projects.  You can find out how I did these here and here.  For now I flipped her quilt over to the striped side.  The other side seemed to be too busy for the new pillows and bedskirt.  For now I think it works.  The lamp on the left is from Home Goods and the lamp on the right (on her desk) is from Target for the base (shabby chic) and Pottery Barn Kids for the lampshade.

The drapes are from Target's shabby chic line and were very reasonably priced.  The curtain rod is from pottery barn kids.  You can see a closeup of the rod and how to hang drapes like this here.

The pink wall was stenciled by me.  That wall alone took almost five hours.  Click here to see how I achieved the look of wallpaper with a stencil.  The memo board was made by me.  Click here to see how I made it.  Super fast and easy project for less than $20.  The desk and chair I found up in my attic.  I moved the desk next to her bed and it really opened up her room.  Using fabric I already had I recovered that chair.  Click here to see how I transformed the chair.

Ultimately this desk got moved next to her bed as seen in the pictures at the top of the post.

The word art I made as well.  The flowers and hearts on the word art were made using paint samples from Lowes.  You can check out how to make the word art here.  The vines and birds are decals from Home Goods.

I replaced the formica furniture she had (which was a hand me down from when we were first married) with a find I got at the Ethan Allen annual warehouse sale.  I got the armoire for 40% off the regular price.   It's a perfect fit for her room.  I got humpty dumpty to come off the wall...my daughter wasn't willing to completely get rid of him...so for now he will sit on top of the armoire.

The banner behind her door was made by me a few years ago.  I totally copied the idea from a banner than posh tots sells.  I just did it for a fraction of the price.  The little heart table with the dolls on it was painted by me as well.  I got it at AC Moore when I was pregnant with my daughter.  The "S" door hanging was also homemade by me.  You can check out here how I made it.

up close picture of table...I stenciled her first and middle name on each leg

This is her wall of closets.  Makes it tough for furniture arranging when one entire wall has closets.  Also, I would love to remove the bypass doors and replace them with french doors.  The downside to that is that the doors would then open up into her room...using up even more space in her space challenged room.

The birds and flowers on the doors are decals from Home Goods.  

The mirror you see is from Home Goods.  I didn't mind putting her beautiful armoire behind the door since you can see its reflection when you walk into the room in this mirror.  This mirror is huge and heavy.  It was only $39.99 at Home Goods! (I still think it had to be mis-marked - Home Goods was selling the same brand mirror in half the size for twice the price).    The little side table is from Target's shabby chic line.  The lamp shade was embellished by me.  You can check that out here.
The chair in her room didn't start looking like that.

It started out looking like this.

The chair was reupholstered to look like this.  Pretty amazing, right?

The "dream" and "imagine" are also decals from Home Goods costing $9.99 (the rest of the decal was used on the other side of the room near the memo board).

The picture I already had in the house (technically it was under a bed waiting to reappear somewhere in the house).  It seems to go well with the soft feel of her room.

Her door sign started as a heart shaped piece of wood bought from AC Moore.  I decoupaged scrapbook paper on it, painted letters and used my hot glue gun to attach them.  I then used industrial strength sticky back velcro to attach it to the door (I used regular strength first and it fell off the door within two weeks-too heavy I guess).

Here's the before and after:

Before

 I think I am done...or at least for the moment.  Let me know what you think of her room now.  I'd love your feedback.

-Judy