I know many of you have a new way of doing school this year. For us, we were grateful that this was our 5th year in doing online school at home. I devote a large part of my days during the school year to guiding my kids in their schooling. It is time consuming, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Doing school at home and working with them each one on one calls for a large work space where we can sit together, with room for two laptops, notebooks, snacks and of course my cup of coffee!
Over the summer, I was lucky enough to come across an awesome old door for sale at Schultz’s Wedding & Event Barn. It was old, chippy, and at the time I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to do with it yet, but I knew it had to come home with me.
This old door is definitely needed some TLC and was extremely ‘thirsty!’
Look what striping a few layers of old paint with CitriStrip + several layers of Beyond Paint Multi Purpose Sealer did for this door! It is alive once again!
I made sure to wear my RZ air filtration Mask, and once I stripped down as much of the top layer of brown paint that I could using a flat edge scraper and CitriStrip, I then washed it all down with a wet rag. This part can get messy, but the end result is so worth it. I lightly sanded down the top, until it had just the look that I wanted, revealing enough of that beautiful green paint. My next step was to give it several coats of Beyond Paint’s Multi Purpose Sealer. I’m pretty sure I over did this part, not because I had to, but because I just wanted over assurance that none of the old paint was going to flake off no matter how rough we were on the desk.
Once the top of the desk was dry, I flipped it over. and measured the width of the desk. I grabbed two boards that I had laying in my wood pile and cut them down to size with my miter saw. I layered on the wood glue, then using wood screws, I attached one board near each end of the bottom of the door. These serve as the supports, so when I attached the hairpin legs, the screws from those don’t come through onto the top of the desk. The boards also help give the desk more stability.
The final step was to attach the hairpin legs into each of the boards, flip the desk over, and get back to school!
I just love taking something that might have otherwise been tossed and turning it into something both unique and useful! My kids and I spend a large part of our days at this desk now and it serves its purpose perfectly and isn’t too bad to look at either!
The two wood chairs are from the 1920’s and I was able to score both of them on Facebook Marketplace for $10 each! Bonus > they rock, swivel and spin!
I plan to give this desk a better photo shoot someday soon, until then, I hope you enjoyed reading about my latest project! Next up, an old kitchen table and chairs that will be given new life and used as a game table at a lake house! Stay tuned, you’re going to love that one!
As always, you can follow along with my DIY Projects and Adventures over on Facebook & Instagram! See you there!
DIY + HANDMADE + VINTAGE 