Repurposed Desk into Night Stands

It dawned on me that my last post was forever long ago and I promised a desk redo and alas summer got a hold of me and my blog has been pushed aside for pool time, reading and chilling.  At long last I have organized my pictures and will show you how to repurpose a desk and turn it into 2 night stands. 

I searched and searched for just the right desk to use for my boys' night stands.  They were using old plastic bins that were primary colors and just juvenile.  They didn't go with their rooms and they really needed more grown up furniture.  And really, night stands are not cheap.  I finally scored a desk of Craigslist and got busy tearing it apart.

The Before Picture

As I got to work on this desk I got out the hand held saw to cut the middle section and quickly realized it was being held together by nails.  I decided to ditch the saw and started banging it apart with a mallet.  Very gently.

There were some holes left from the tongue and groove parts.  I used  a dry wall mesh to cover it and then I put puddy over it and sanded.  Sorry, forgot to take pics of that part.

Separated At Last!

I love how deep the drawers are.  Perfect for my little pack rats.

Once I gave them a good sanding and fixed all the holes I sprayed them down with a Satin finish spray paint.  

I have decided I need to invest in a paint sprayer.   With all the spray paint I go through I am wondering if it would be cheaper in the long run.

The After Photos

There ya go.  Pretty easy really.  Took me about 1 day to finish these very grown up nightstands.  Mr N. is in love with his drawer pulls.  He said they were very cool! I'll take that as a Thanks MOM!

It is always fun to find new ways to use old things.  I think I have caught the repurposing bug.  Who's with me!!!

Thanks for stopping by and happy repurposing!

Making friends over at
 


 

I've Got the Back To School Boy Blues

If you are a reader of my blog you know I only have boys.  To top my creative misery off, they are older boys.  I don't get to do all this cutesy, yummy, goodness to any of their things.  I can't embroider their bags anymore, I can't send them to school with hand made bows in their hair, or with shoes that I have bedazzled to match their outfit.  Do you pity me yet?  Do you have some cheese to go with my whine?  Well, as much as I whine about not having a daughter to share all my creativity with, I did manage to sneak a little in here and there with my boys this year, and with out much grumbling on their part I might add.  I guess this year, I have finally started to learned balance, some give and take if you will,  when it comes to jazzing their belongings up, sprinkling them with as much of my creativity as they will possibly allow.  My days are numbered, but until then I will test their limits every year just so I too can enjoy some of this back to school creative bliss that you mothers of girls and little children get to enjoy.

This post is dedicated to my small attempt to cure my back to school blues with my boys.

This first picture is of their new lunch bags.  I bought them from the company Thirty One, which my friend, Amelia, is a seller for.  Love this company.  Great prices and monogramming.  I know I said I couldn't monogram anymore, but I snuck it in this year with great success.  Not one grumble.

Ya, Mr. B thinks he is funny.  Just like his father.

Mr. N got a red N on his, school colors are black and red.  Great for boys!!!  And Mr. B received a black B on his.  He is a teenager now so I made it black to be less obvious.  As you see I still got to jazz up their gear a little bit.  Yea for me.   Less whining coming from my lips.  :D

My next few pictures are of Mr. B and his school supplies and room we got ready for his freshman year.  {Good grief, I choke even typing that.}  Here again, I got to sneak it in a bit.  

Where we live they aren't allowed to use their lockers.  Because of that we have to minimize as much school supplies as we can, because they carry it on their backs all day in their backpacks.  I hate it for them.  When he came home the first day he had written, scratched in pencil the word Spanish on his binder.  "This will not do", I said.  I took his binders and told him, "I will be back."  "MOM!!  What are going to do to them?" he asked with concern.  "Don't worry, I will make them look awesome."  With my black vinyl and my Cricut I cut out his class names and stuck them on.  Now, I at first started to put the vinyl on the outside of the binders.  He looked at me and said, "Those will be off by the end of the day from me pulling them in and out of my bag."  Duh!!  Why didn't I think of that?  Back to my machine I went and cut the words out in the mirror image and stuck them on the inside of the binder.  Here we are in week 3 and so far so good.  He has not mumbled anymore about me "bedazzling" his binders.  Yea, for me again.  This brought my creative side much joy. 

And for the grand finally.  Remember his desk redo?  I told you I was working on his peg board.  It is finally done.  Even though it is not how I want him to have it used or looking, it is keeping him more organized and I think as the year goes on we will tweak it here and there to use it better. 

We painted the peg board black and I added his blue wall color to the baskets to make them pop more.  I bought shelf brackets so we could add a book shelf to it.  I bought a small white shelf at Lowe's for $4 and sanded it then spray painted it black.  All his hooks keep his para-cord organized for the bracelets he makes.  This new peg board at least helps start him on the road to being more organized for high school.  Yikes, that word makes my heart hurt. 

The top black stripe on his wall is painted with magnetic paint {several coats} and then painted black.  It goes all around his room.  He can stick whatever he wants on there with magnets.  

There ya go ladies.  This is how I tackled my back to school blues with boys.  I hope you have enjoyed my little post.  If you are a mom of older boys and have any more ideas for this momma that loves to add a little creativity to her everyday life, please, please pass them along.  Maybe this has inspired you to sneak a little jazz to your boys school supplies.

As always, thanks for stopping by.  

I'm glad you could come for a visit.  

{Kelly} 

You can find me over at...
 




  

 

YOUR TRASH, MY TREASURE

I will admit I am not much of a trash digger.  I am secretly one inside.  I wish I had the nerve to just pull up to the side of the road and grab your discarded junk treasure.  I will pass stuff by and think, 'wow I could use that', but I'm too shy, nervous, scared, whatever to get out of my stinking car and grab it.  What if you see me?  What if it won't fit in my car?  What will the neighbors think?  

The nerve is slowly creeping up inside of me though and this post is living proof of that.  

My neighbors discarded a desk onto the side of the road during trash week.  I admired that thing from a far for a few days.  It was a little trashed but it had lovely lines.  I wanted it for my entry way. I already envisioned it for my entry way.  Yet, there it sat.  And then it rained.  IT RAINED!!!!  I was kicking myself.  I was mad at myself for not being braver.  I must have finally gotten mad enough because I strolled down there in the cover of darkness, a true ninja skill acquired from 

being a mother of boys, and picked it up brought it home.  

My youngest thought I had lost my mind.  

It was in worse shape then I had thought.  I was determined to not be discouraged.  With my years of crafting skills surely I could 

make it special again.  I mean why else would God have given me these skills. Right?

So enjoy this post of my first ever dumpster diving, trash picking, curb stealing adventure. 

So, as you can see it's a little beat up. No drawer, it was broken off.  It had a metal thing on the top, that was maybe at one point a light?  Great lines though right!!!

This is a better shot of the top. YUCK!!!

How does one remedy this?  The first challenge for me was to find something to replace the drawer with.  I just needed a faux drawer.  Something to cover the hole.  We had all sizes of scrap wood laying around, but nothing really fit.  Then I remembered I had some chip wood that my father in law gave me.  It was worth a shot.

Ya, it didn't fit either.  It wasn't wide enough.  So I sawed, yes I said sawed, the bottoms of where the drawer would normally be and it made the desk the perfect size for the chip wood.  If you look at my before you can tell what parts I sawed off.  I used tack nails to nail it into place.  Can't you see it taking shape?  I was giddy by this point!!!

Now for some PAINT!!!

 It's getting there. 

And drum roll please....

Remember how I said I wanted this for my entryway.  Well... my dear friend's daughter who recently got her first teaching job fresh out of college needed something by her classroom door to place info for the kids.  I knew right then and there this desk was meant for her.  Black and red are the school colors.  Perfect!!!!

Sooooo pretty, right!!!!

I hot glued a wooden drawer pull on that I painted red.  Just a little extra zip ya know to show true school spirit. ;)

Here is it's final resting place.  I love the quote she picked out. 

Thank you for indulging me as I shared with you my first time curb stealing shopping. The best thing about this project...desk{free!}, paint{already had}, knob{already had}.  Yep, it was basically a free brand new desk by the time I was done making it pretty again.

Good luck Megan on your first year of teaching.  May you never loose the spark that made you want to venture into the very hard but rewarding job of teaching.

{  Kelly }

making friends over at

 

TATTERED AND INKED GUEST BLOGGER TODAY!!!!

Hello all you Creative Chickadee readers!!
I'm so excited to be here today!

My name is Kelsey and my little piece of blogworld is called Tattered and Inked.

I'm a craft blogger and am addicted to furniture redos, free printables and spraypaint :)

I was so excited when Kelly asked me to guest post and I thought I'd show you a recent furniture makeover I did.

I found this awesome beauty at our local Goodwill for 25$.

It was solid, had good lines and was a great size!

The top had quite a bit of wear on it, but not too much damage so I just gave it a good sanding to bring it back to life a little.

I painted the base in my new favorite color: Pottery Barn Cream

and after several coats, I gave it a good distressing with my sander.

I love the look of the dark wood underneath, so this piece got a good bit of distressing.

It really gave it a lot of character.

I painted the top in a creamy espresso brown to give it a two-tone look.

Since the top of the table was just MDF, no grain would have come out if I had stained it,

which is why I decided to paint it instead.

I love the creamy brown against the white.

It had a great drawer on it and I kept the original hardware.

I also made sure to give it several coats of clear gloss to help protect it against youngsters and drinks :)

I actually ended up putting this piece up for sale and I'm hoping it's new owners love it.

Much better, huh?

It's amazing what a little paint can do :)

I'd love for you to come and visit me over at Tattered and Inked!

You can also join the fun with me on Facebook where I post sneak peeks and other fun blog finds I come across!!

Here's a peek at some of my other past projects:

Yellow Harlequin Table

Free Laundry Printables

Yarn Chevron Canvas

Hope to see you soon!

And thank you so much, Kelly, for having me!!