Tween Desk Makeover

We’ve been trying to give our kiddos lots of control over their rooms, starting from when we were designing the floorplan.  We let them each pick their paint colors.  And then we gave them each a $100 decor budget for them to use at their own discretion – it’s been really fun to see how they carefully spend and what they value and want.  They all wanted desks in their room (which they didn’t have before – I think that’s why they wanted one) and after showing them how much new desks cost, we focused on searching Craigslist and SwapShops.  We came across this awesome find – it’s solid wood, lots of cubbies and drawers, and it was only $20!  It was a rolltop in a former life, but I kind of like it with the rolltop part missing.  Anyways, to give it more personality and to fit my 10 year old’s look she wanted for her room, we tackled painting it, and can’t be more happy with the outcome!

We picked the color based off of her bedspread that is on the other side of the room.  It has a deep blue background with just barely barely a hint of purple to it.  It’s perfect!  This is my project for the month as part of the Behr DIY Expert Team – I had my daughter pick her colors, and she went with Bon Nuit, in Behr Marquee for the blue and Beauty Queen in Behr Premium Plus for the perfect pink.  The Pink is found in her bedspread as well as that desk chair she splurged for at IKEA (it’s been her biggest ticket item in her room).

 

You can see the pop of pink that we used when painting the cubbies, but even funner is the surprise of pink that you get when the drawers open – love it!!

This desk was a big accomplishment for me because instead of brushing the color on, I used a paint sprayer for the first time!  It was awesome.  Here’s a before, of what we had to start with:

First step was to remove the drawer pulls and sand it all down with a sanding block.  It’s not my favorite step, but it still has to be done.

Then I brushed on a coat of primer.  Apparently I forgot a picture of that part.  After the primer was dry, I moved the desk out into the gravel driveway and just jumped right in to using a paint sprayer (well, it took me like 30 minutes and several youtube videos to figure out how to work it, and I almost gave up, but then I jumped in).  Where has a paint sprayer been all my life?? I’m hooked!  To brush on a coat, when I did the primer, it took be about an hour because there were tons of nooks and crannies, lots of surface to cover, etc.  When I sprayed the coat of color, it took me like 15 minutes.  SO much faster!!  I don’t have a picture of me spraying, cause you know, I was busy 😉  The Behr paint was amazing and one-coat coverage with Marquee is a real thing!!  I sprayed the top of the desk a second coat, just because I thought it’d get a lot of wear and tear.  I am in love with Behr Marquee paint!

Just beware – overspray is a real thing.  I also had a lovely coat on flecks on one side of my face 😉

I let the blue dry completely (maybe a day or two, I can’t remember) and then we moved on to Phase 2, the pink!  It was fun to have her help with her own desk, own the project.  She painted the sides of all the drawers and we both worked together on painting the cubbies on the upper part of the desk.

  

 

A better view of the pops of pink:

 

For the drawer pulls, we just spraypainted the previous ones hot pink.  For the knobs, we found these cool pink glass ones – I love them!!

Oh, and did put a clear coat of poly on the top of the desk and the writing area, so that way when she has things on display, or uses her desk to actually do homework (will that happen??  we’ll see), the paint won’t be tacky, as latex sometimes tends to be when it’s humid.  Anyways, didn’t it come out awesome?!

For me the hardest part wasn’t painting the desk, it was trying to figure out where to hang stuff on the wall!  I grabbed things I found in her room and made them work.  I’m sure she’ll add to it as time goes on, but it’s working for now.

A few things in the decor I’m sure you’ll ask about – –

Giant Paper Flowers Wall Decor

Faux Wood (yes, that’s foam!!) String Art

Money Jug

Duct Tape Pens

DIY Marquee Initial

Marker Initial Mug (with an aloe plant in it)

Cactus Rocks

the Initial Canvas she made at a recently birthday party, and the bulletin board is a DIY kit she received as a gift.  I bought her a real life orchid flower, so let’s hope we can keep that alive!!

I feel like it’s perfect for her and her room!!

And sneak peek of our house (I know, I’m super behind on posts on how we build our own house!!) – this is the wall where her desk sits – that bump out to the left is a bathroom that my girls share, and we left it open on top, so that it’ll be a loft that is open to both of their rooms – like you can go from own room to another by crawling up and in and over the loft.  So cool!