craftgrrl | The Coolest Writing Desk

My boyfriend and I are moving into our first apartment on Monday. My older sister snagged a living room set from a friend of hers at work for us, which was incredibly sweet. We love the couches, didn't need the lamps and were lukewarm toward the tables. So I decided they needed a makeover. (My boyfriend trusts me with this stuff, which is nice, so he didn't care what I did to the tables as long as I used the sofa table that was going to become my writing desk as a prototype. Good thing I did, too!)

There were three tables with the set, a large low coffee table which you can see in the background of this picture, a regular sized end table which is not shown and the sofa table which is the focus here.

I didn't take a picture of it standing up, but you can sort of get a better idea of the finish it had from the table in the background which is the exact same style and all. And that's our new sofa, too, by the way. =)

I painted the legs "claret" from Ralph Lauren. It was the closest color that matched the couches. Which was the original intention: to redo all the tables so they'd match the couches in a way we enjoyed. (The original finish is nice, but not wonderful.)

It was going to need more than one coat. When I finished putting on three, I turned it rightside up and the top looked hideous orange! (Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of that. I think I was too upset because it wasn't turning out the way I thought it would.) After a few brainstorming sessions with my family and boyfriend, I figured I'd go ahead and paint the top of it white.

Then! I saw this decoupaged tin can of mine while I was packing up some stuff. I had decoupaged it with wrapping paper I bought at the dollar store that's just a collage of worldly stamps.

White table + nifty postage stamp wrapping paper = the coolest writing desk in the world. I absolutely love it.

(We decided to leave the other two tables, the ones that are going in the living room, alone. No, they're not perfect, but that's okay. If we really hate them we'll figure something out later.)