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