Just Paint It Challenge!

My friend Ashley over at Decorating Obsessed put a challenge out to her readers to "Just Paint It!" Essentially saying, if there is something you've been avoiding painting, for whatever reason, just do it and I'm giving you a deadline. So I accepted her challenge, and then moderately failed...

I was initially going to paint the kitchen orange while Micheal was away in Paris as a surprise. :)

However, due to the death vine attack and the fact that it was getting worse up to the day he was supposed to leave he opted not to go. So...I didn't paint the kitchen...

Instead, I FINISHED a project that has been on my "to do" list for-eva, MY DESK! And I am in love with it!

I bought this desk of CL from a very nice woman for $12. She sold it for $12 because that is how much it costs for her and her son to go bowling. :)



One of the best parts about this desk is that we know some interesting history about it. It is actually a vanity that originally had a mirror attached to the back. The woman we bought it from had it for a long time and purchased it herself used from a man in Philadelphia. I didn't get a good picture of it (hangs head low) but you can sort of see a latch that had been placed on the top right drawer in that picture. The man said that he had to put that lock on it to keep his wife out of his cigarettes! :)

Interestingly, the original shipping receipt was still attached to the back and the initial delivery date was in the 1940s to an address in Washington DC! So it's been from DC to Philly and back again. And who knows, maybe someday it'll travel cross country to the Midwest!





As you can see, it was in pretty bad shape. Really beyond restoration to it's original stained wood glory at this point. Generally I dislike painting wood, but in this case it was necessary, so I decided to go all out!

The color inspiration for my office came from this place mat from Crate and Barrel. The accent wall is orange so I was looking for a bright green/blue to paint the desk.


Boy did I find it!






I did some minimal staging since I haven't moved it to my office yet :) so ignore the brown paper floor and teal wall - that's what the workshop looks like. (Put some special books in there just for my classmates to appreciate...)

I'm so happy with how it turned out, I think it's fun, funky and will be a great addition to my office!

I'm also sharing my work on the DIY Showoff Parage! Check it out!




PS - Do those drawer pulls look familiar? Check out how I reused them!