Painted Desk

So as I mentioned in my last post, I recently acquired a really cool old desk from my grandparents.  Since it was looking a little beat up, I decided to try my hand at furniture painting.  As an ex-miniaturist and dollhouse renovator, I'm a pretty big fan of the transforming power of paint, but this was my first actual life-size project.

Before picture - isn't it a neat desk?  I just want to hide the chips.

I started off by sanding off the top and ended up scraping off a layer of some shellac-type stuff in the process.  Since I want to use the desk for writing, I made sure to sand the top extra well, but for the rest of the desk, I mostly just sanded enough to rough it up.  I also removed the drawer pulls, which were all this cool warn-off bronze color - definitely holding onto those.

For the next step, I used some powdered soap my dad had for washing walls pre-painting.  After scrubbing it down and wiping it with a clean rinse rag, I used the dry-time to go pick out some paint.  Walmart's Color Place Interior ended up being the cheapest (around $10 for a quart), and I chose a semi-gloss turquoise called Shimmering Summer Pool.

I put on a coat of primer that same evening, and voila, here we are.

Primed and ready.

With our current 100+ degree temps, I painted early the next morning.  Even so, toward the end, the paint was drying as soon as I slapped it on.  Total it took about two hours for two coats, so not too bad.  I've been listening to my new Regina Spektor album, "What We Saw From the Cheap Seats," on loop lately (I'm a little obsessed), so between her and the cat, Bon, keeping me company, it didn't seem to take that long.  The whole project was done in less than 24 hours and I'm pretty pleased with the results.

Time well spent.

Close up of the drawers - aren't the pulls lovely?

There were no real mishaps during the project.  I had to chase kitty Bon off at one point, as she became intent on rubbing all over my sticky, freshly-painted surface.  (Don't worry, after a bit of a sulk, she got over it.)  The color also turned out a bit lighter than I expected.  I'm usually more of a brights than pastels person; as I explained to a friend, "When they turn me loose with paint, it's always gonna be...memorable."  But in this case, I think it'll be a nice change.  And as my friend joked yesterday, "Well, you can always keep it and reuse it in a baby room one day."

Hullo World

So, thus begins the official countdown to my new apartment.  (Fateful move is scheduled to take place on August 15th.)  As a fourth year college student, I'm finally leaving the dorms behind and stepping out into the realm of having-a-kitchen-and-paying-electric-bills.  I'm also going to have my own room finally, which will be a welcome change.

The actual apartment my roommate and I chose is pretty much the itty-bittiest, cheapest thing on campus, but that's how we wanted it.  As my first year to go no-loans (thanks to scholarships and work study), my heart is glad, but my wallet's feeling a little light.  The plan at the first of the summer was to get a full-time job to save for food costs, but thanks to my part-time/odd-job reality and the ravages of monthly car payments, I've had to adjust plans a little bit.  Since I still have no desire to sleep on the floor and live on ramen, here's where the interesting part comes in.

First, I want to admit that I've been EXTREMELY blessed by a bunch of nice and generous people.  A sweet friend at school gave me her old sofa bed, entertainment center, and tv since she was graduating.  Both of my grandmothers have pitched in to fill my cabinets with their extra dishes and utensils.  My mom gave me an old set of silverware they had saved out in their camping supplies.  My grandparents gave me an old desk they had.  And my brother agreed to let me steal his old Ikea chair (that nobody loves anyway - one of my projects is going to be to make it more comfy and lovable).

But after that, comes the need for creativity.  And that's where this blog comes in.  As an avid pinterester (read: serious addict), I've run into a plethora of amazing decorating ideas, but my budget has forced me to narrow even these down to their cheapest possible elements.  As I was thinking about this the other day, I realized that, while buying lovely decor straight from the store would be easy and simple, it would really take the fun out of it.  I decided items in my apartment should have stories behind them, that half the fun of decorating is making do with what's available, and to keep this whole super-budget-life fun, I'd turn it into a blog.  And here we are.  Let the thrifty adventures begin.