Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Boring to Botanical: The Transformation of a Desk

Some time ago, I inherited a desk from Ryan's grandmother. When our office got way too crowded for it, we moved it out into the living room. However, I rarely used it since I had a laptop - I admit it; I would just veg on the cough with my laptop...well, on my lap.

Getting my iMac, and therefore needing to use the desk again, inspired me to give it a makeover. So I did! I got the idea from Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts - a book that I still do not own but through which I frequently browse in Barnes & Noble. (Was it stealing to see this idea in the book and benefit from it? I hope not.)

I might have mentioned before that I'm slowly incorporating a fresh yellow, white and green look to my living room. I transformed my desk with this new theme in mind.

Before:
This is the book that I bought and...gulp....cut pictures out of for decoupaging. It caused me physical pain to cut up a book, but it helped a little bit that I knew its purpose when I bought it. Kind of like my friend who bought two lambs knowing she and her family were going to slaughter and gobble them.
(Sorry for the price tag - I tried to peel it off but it wanted to take the cover with it, and I couldn't degrade my poor book any more than necessary. Besides, now you can see that it was on sale!)

I painted my desk - FOUR coats - and coated it with some polyacrylicdoodlealltheday that the dudes at Lowe's told me would work (it did).


I chose pictures that matched my color scheme, painted them with Mod Podge, let it dry, and cut them out.


Then I Mod Podged them to the desk and voila!



My desk is now fun, girly, and matchy-matchy with the living room! (At least, how the living room WILL look when we paint it.)

I'm quite happy with it :)


5 comments:

Kristina said...

The desk looks awesome! If only I could paint in the house... it would go so much faster. Stupid rainy Georgia.

Kelly said...

cute deco job!

I've never figured out how to reply to a comment when someone leaves a comment on my blog other than following it back to their blog and commenting. So anyway...

You are TOTALLY justified getting proud and puffed up about your photos. They are a product of your giftedness, talent and hard work! God gave you those talents and I know you recognize that. I wouldn't allow you to not feel pride for doing such an amazing job. :) The reason I shared my pride as a weakness is because at the very moment that I was becoming prideful and thinking everyone around me thought my family and kids were adorable, we sang those words "all the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to his blood." It hit me that I was not taking pride in God's hand in our family. I was taking pride in me.

Good night!

kristena marie said...

That's so cute, Sarah!!! Love it! It's like a little glimpse of redemption.

Kim said...

its adorable!! Good job!

Stephanie said...

SO CUTE, SARAH! I'm so jealous of your creativity! Keep posting your projects so maybe one day, when I get enough courage, I can try them out myself! :)