Destroyed to Devine...Desk Transformation

The first room in our house that we decided to redo was the office. It was an easy pick since we knew we weren't going to be using it as much as other rooms in the house. Plus, it was out of the way, and we could work on it slowly without the chaos of everything being all over the place.

The one thing that I desperately wanted for our office was a new desk. I was tired of the massive ikea desk we had and wanted something that I could "re-vamp". I wanted something that looked like this:

A "French Provincial Writing Desk" I discovered it was called.

I looked EVERYWHERE.

We went to every furniture store we could think of, and the only stores that carried anything similar were selling for around $800-$1200. Way beyond our budget.  We were hoping for something in the 'under $200' range....wishful thinking I suppose. I searched on Kijiji for weeks in a million locations...nothing.

However, being the determined person I am, I wasn't about to give up on my idea of my dream desk. I could invision it beautifully in that room, and I was going to find it! Finally, one morning my brilliant husband suggested I look on Kijiji in a different geographic region- one close to his parents. That way, if we did find something, we could ask to borrow their van and drive it home.

There it was. My perfect "French Provincial Style Writing Desk".... listed at $95.00.

It must be a typo I thought, and the desk had been listed months ago, and was probably sold (another person who forgot to take down their listing).
However, I couldn't give up on this, so I emailed the person immediately and stared at my computer, waiting for a response. Nothing. I called. No answer. Sigh.....
An hour later the phone rang and Ian answered- it was the desk person!!!! I was thrilled- the desk was still available, however, it had a bit of damage to one of the corners from their dog. They had just returned from a vacation and hadn't been actively selling it. 

We drove down that afternoon to check it out. Perfect. It was in absolutely gorgeous condition- solid wood, beautifully cared for...except for the one corner which had been chewed by the dog. I looked past that. Ian was certain we could fix it would wood filler, and we were painting it anyways. Plus, for $95.00 I couldn't pass up this deal.

So we brought it home, piled on the wood filler, sanded. Piled on the wood filler again, sanded. Did that about 5 times until the corner looked somewhat like a corner again.

Then I sanded the entire desk and had it painted white.

We changed the knobs to crystal knobs and there it was. My perfect desk. For under $200.00 :)

Here's that chewed up corner that we fixed with a bit of wood filler and paint:

Put the crystal knobs on:

Ta Da! 

Another DIY project for the books!


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