How me and my Girl UPCYCLED this desk...

Poooootling past the local TIP during the Summer....

okay, it was a deliberately planned "Let's go home this way and OH look let's pop into the tip" kind of a trip out....

We stumbled upon this smelly Desk / Bureau.

 Daughter is need of a such a thing. We have outgrown the cute little school desk that has served us so well till now (stifled Sob) and our bottoms no longer fit that tiny wooden chair.

 We had a late warm day and decided to go for the project.

We tried EVERYthing to get all the varnish off. Nitromors is quite simply rubbish today, compared yesteryears when it was properly toxic and useful and DID the job.

We sandpapered til our hands were wrecked.... 

But we had to gloss it in the end. Not ideal (toxic smelly paint) but we are so impatient the pair of us.

 I had a lovely grey/blue in the garage... and we set to.

Daughter chose to replace the handles (we had to, they were missing and/or not good enough to keep) with wooden round knobs that she decided to spray paint red. I was unsure of the colour choice but this was her project. 

 Stupidly, this object then had to be left outside - we couldn't move it! it was glossed. and all the tiny shitty flies and bugs attached themselves to the sticky paint like moths to a flame. 

And then it rained.... so i tried to cover it with a large 'wheelbarrow liner bag' (gardeners will know what i am talking about) and i had to 'prop' it up so the bag didn't touch the wet gloss.... you can see i had made an entire HASH of getting this thing completed. 

 Well, fast forward about 4 days... and guess what?

It remained safe from the rain.

The Gloss dried(ish)

The flies wiped off - and left no fly fluid stains!

And my dad popped down to help me locate it.

We hadn't even measured if it fitted the space... YES! i know, i fly by the seat of pants.

It fitted - with a breath each side to spare.

And it looks awesome, hello!!??!! is that not fantastic?

My girl is 10yrs old - it's like her dream desk.

All those little pigeon holes! :)

So, i was lucky... this whole thing went horribly wrong at every stage.

And here it is, in locus, sitting pretty and everything about it is so right.

Cool.