DIY Desk

When I started planning out my bedroom at my new apartment there was one thing I was very certain on: I wanted a desk that was a perfect twist of bohemian eclectic, modern, and vintage. I know, what a weird combination, right? This was my first real "DIY" and I was really nervous that I would end up spending way more money than is worth spending, and that I would screw the whole thing up.

First things first, I set out on a mission to find cheap desks. I scoured garage sales, almost every Goodwill in the GTA, perused through copious Kijiji ads and I even resulted in bombarding my friends and coworkers askin if they had any old sewing desks lying around (apparently no one does these days). Finally, after searching for what felt like forever, I found the perfect desk! I paid $40 for it, which I think is a great deal considering it's solid wood.

After I purchased the desk the next step was settling on a colour. I knew I wanted to paint the desk, but I didn't want to go for the typical painted white desk; I wanted something different, yet classy. Then I found "Dinner Mint" by Behr, which I got in a satin finish. It's a beautiful light mint green, almost white, but against my grey walls, you can really pick up the green hues. While I was at Home Depot buying paint, I also picked up hardware. This was the priciest thing I purchased for the reno, ringing in all 6 knobs at 7 bucks a pop, I spent a good 50 dollars on the hardware alone (and then another $16 on the paint).

I was very pleased with the outcome. I think next time I paint furniture though I'm going to go for an oil-based paint, because latex was really hard to use consistency-wide.

Here's the finished product:

Before

After

Total price of renovation: $106. Not bad at all. In fact most desks at IKEA are about $100 and they aren't solid wood, or custom.

I enjoyed the process so much I'm already planning my next DIY!