Desk Make-Over

Dan got a job (YAY!!), a job that will require him to work out of our apartment.  I also work from home sometimes and our small corner desk doesn't have room for two.  Craigslist saved the day - once again - when we found a cute little desk perfect for our living room corner.  There is always the option of buying a cheap desk from Walmart or Target, but what fun is that.  It'd cost about $100 for a cheap desk made of particle board and we got this solid wood desk and chair for only $40.  In addition to the cost factor, the desk also gave me the opportunity to try my hand at another project and we all know I love projects!

Here is the desk, in all its scratched up and looking rough glory:

After some sanding, black paint and new knobs - here is the desk now. 

And a close up of the knobs - purchased for "free" from Target - Thanks to my weekly gift cards from work! The only handles were pretty outdated looking.  I like the fresh modern look these new knobs give. 

And one more close-up of the inside of the drawers.  A splash of color!  And check out of the fun chair.  I debated painting the chair black as well, but we already have a lot of black furniture the way it is.  So I left it wood tone - which also ties in well to the other wood tones we have in the living room.  The original chair seat was black leather, but I wanted to add a punch of fun to this desk so I covered the seat in zebra print.  I love me some zebra print! :)

And, in case you want to know all the thoughts that went through my head in deciding how to make over this desk, I'll tell you now.  As I said earlier, we have a lot of black in our living room so I initially wanted to keep the desk in wood tones.  I also thought it would be cool to do the desk two tones, leaving the top wood and the base black.  But after bringing it home and looking it over more, I realized that it was going to take a LOT of sanding to get the desk down to the bare wood.  I dont have a round belt sander, nor do I know anyone close by that has one - so I had to scratch those ideas.  I guess all black it is!  The plus to all black is that I had all the supplies from the ottoman project, so the only costs for this desk were the desk itself and the $5 for the fabric (remember, the knobs were "free")!