This is a post about a desk.

I tell my students not to begin with sentences like “This essay is going to be about the mating habits of salamanders” or “In my essay, I am going to tell you about the mating habits of salamanders.” I also encourage them to write about things other than the mating habits of salamanders. But it’s summer, and I feel like disobeying my own guidelines, so I’ll begin this post by saying that this post is going to be about a desk. Or does it really count as beginning if you already began with details about the guidelines you are breaking?

Anyway.

This is a post about a desk. Specially, this desk:

This desk that used to look like this:

First to go was the crappy polyurethane finish. Said crappy finish was compliments of my first foray into polyurethane, two summers ago, that did not end well. I basically went slap happy with the Minwax and ended up with a piece of furniture that looked like it had lost a battle with a Vaseline-wielding tree. So when we moved into our house last April, the desk was banished to the Land of Furniture Rejects…until a couple weeks ago, when I realized that it would make the perfect bedroom vanity to house my Girl Stuff. (You know, headbands, earrings, pins. Not bras. Too bad. I do love to discuss bras on this blog.)

My goal for this makeover was to use only supplies that I already had, so after the gross finish was gone, I gave it a coat of tinted primer followed by three coats of Behr’s Seal Gray (primer and paint were both leftover from our former living room). The drawers got white spray paint inside and out. I spray painted the original knobs in glossy Krylon red and then gave them a coat of Rustoleum clear gloss protective finish so they will hopefully withstand frequent use.

I lined the drawers with red scrapbook paper. There were seams, which really isn’t a big deal because hello it’s a drawer and the seam would be covered by my Girl Supplies, but I was feeling OCD and punched out little circles to make a design where the seam was. So when you come visit me, feel free to open my vanity’s drawers. You will not see any seams.

The final coat is a mix of spray-on glossy protective finish (on the base and drawers) and Minwax wipe-on polyurethane for the top. The jury is still out on the wipe-on poly, but I have a feeling I may be writing a love story about it one day. It will be called This Is About My Love Affair With Wipe-On Polyurethane.

And not that this room is actually ready for a full “before and after” but I sometimes have to remind myself that this is what that corner looked like when we moved in.

You can read other details about the bedroom evolution here.

What did you get done this weekend? Who wants to be my student? Who wants to come help me keep my new desk/vanity clean so that it doesn’t collect every unwanted item in the house?

***Linking this up to Primitive & Proper, the DIY Project Parade & My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia!***