Old Desk Made Cottage Cute

 

Quick n inexpensive makeovers? Is there such a thing? Yup. There is.

I bought this desk from our friends, I think it was rescued from an old barn. It was in pretty bad shape. Like…I almost threw it out kind of bad shape. It was dirty, full of stickers and in pieces. And HEAVY. Oh my word. This sucker was solid wood and super heavy. Ugh. Pretty isn’t it?

Take a moment to appreciate the ugliness. I’ll wait.

I lugged it all the way to the cottage in NS and had a plan for it. Mr FPM thought I was nuts. He often does. (True story)

I had him lug the dirty thing upstairs and…bam…. It fit where I had hoped, like a glove I tell ya!

He put the pieces together (still thinking I was NUTSO) and I gave it a good scrub and scrapped the stupid stickers off.  (I have a real hatred for stickers on furniture anyone else out there feel the same??) The date stamped on the back was 1967, and it was made in Canada (yay). It may or may not be as old as me. I’ll never tell.

Once it was cleaned I scuff sanded it and took considerable time picking a white that was just perfect. That’s actually not true. I only had Champlain in our Fusion Mineral Paint at the cottage. So that’s the colour I picked. Simple right? :)

I gave it a quick coat (seriously, it only took 10 mins) and waited the 4 -12 hours between coats  waited an hour and added a second coat. (Do as I say, not as I do, and for the record, I usually wait the 4 – 12 hour min, but it was super dry day and I was in a hurry).

Getting there…base is done. Top needs a little something special.

I decided to use a Nova Scotia Map decoupaged to the top of this desk. The desk is in one of my favourite rooms in the cottage. Its used as my office when I’m working from there, and I thought it would be nice to have a little “tourist guide” centre set up for my renters. Can you spot our little fishing village of Blue Rocks on the map?

 

I actually used our Fusion Transfer and Decoupage Gel to decoupage this to the top. It worked amazingly well. I am not a fussy crafty person (as most of you know) so it’s not perfect, I don’t cut straight lines or fiddle with details. I don’t sweat the small stuff, it’s perfectly imperfect with a few wrinkles and not so straight…but..no one but me will be “examining it” it is what it is. I kinda dig the way it came out.

I like the perfectly imperfect look on my furniture.

I added some vintage knobs I rescued off a dresser (blog post on that soon) and I just love it. I work from here a lot when I’m at the cottage.

We (ok by we I mean me, cuz, let’s face it, HE doesn’t notice a thing) topped this desk area off with a globe pendant light that I made, a quick chalkboard I made and a sign I bought hubby off Etsy a few years ago showing our Lat n Long and the year we bought this little crazy cottage, I added a little map bunting and called it done!

We added a printer for our guests use, a comfy chair and lots of tourist information. (Pillow is from Down Home Living in Lunenburg)

I think she looks cute. This was definitely an easy peasy and quick makeover to do.  A little paint, a little decoupage, a map, some reused hardware. Easy. Inexpensive. Very Quick. It’s how we roll. Total for this corner was under 75$, with the pillow and the Etsy print included. Boom!

Thanks for popping in!

Wendy

ps…I will be doing a whole room tour soon. We renovated and decorated this room on a super tight budget.