Turning the Partridge Family Desk Into Something Less Shameful

I know how all y’all hate a DIY post around here but I needed to write this one.
I did.
It was necessary. Because I can’t believe it was only last July that I painted this desk.

A mere 15 months ago that this desk was all pretty and happy and now it is missing knobs.

With graffiti on the top.

It used to look lovely and shiny and new.

This was just over a year ago in July 2014.
Thank goodness I have a blog to remind me of when I did anything.
With handy timestamps in the upper right-hand corner.

But here we are again.

In my youngest daughter’s defense, it was an ugly desk makeover.
It looked like the Partridge Family was going to pop out of the drawers and sing “Come on Get Happy” at any given moment.
Which would be terrifying to her because she doesn’t even know who the Partridge Family is.

Even after I half-assed the makeover, I wasn’t really happy with it.
I mean, look at it.
You can see the color fading right after I painted it.
SPRAY painted it.
I SPRAY painted her desk.

But this isn’t the first time I did this.
Oh no.

For the original makeover, I spray painted the entire desk as well as spray painting the top with chalkboard paint for my oldest daughter’s room.
My laziness knows no bounds.
I have good intentions, I really do.
But Ellie was a toddler at the time and I had little time to get things done.
Now, I have no excuses.

So I decided I needed to make it right with this desk.

I took it apart slowly and started the process of hand painting the desk and chair with real paint.
Not pressurized paint in a can.

Bye, bye artwork.

Bye bye poorly painted cheap Ikea chair.

This is inside the desk drawer and is going nowhere.
This graffiti was from when Anna had the desk in her room years ago.
Anna loves herself.
And that is awesome.

Well, the mystery of where my Dove chocolates went has been solved.
Phew.

And here is what the desk looks like when I actually took my time and used real paint:

Even I am shocked at how good it looks.

It didn’t take hours and hours either if you are one of those DIY types who hate DIY.
It took me one coat on the sides of the desk and two coats on the top which took me an afternoon to paint.
The drawers took two coats each, which took a total of two days including drying time.

I decided to paint her chair a coral color because coral is awesome.
And Ella is awesome.
So the match made in heaven.
The paint color is Coral Banks by Valspar.

Do you see that?
No missing knobs.
I said knob.
Like, twice.
The new knobs are from a chain craft store, 50% off on sale.
Don’t ever buy your knobs full price.
That is the most the word knob has been used in a paragraph ever.

Last spring, we decided to get Ella real furniture because she had been sleeping in her sister’s hand me down bed, with her grandmas hand me down headboard ala missing pieces and had no dresser.
We had gone to a friend’s beautiful home and saw their much younger daughter’s gorgeous bedroom set and I said to Mike when we got home, “we are buying Ella real furniture. Tomorrow.”
This is from IKEA.
It isn’t fancy but it is simple and perfect.
She was so excited when she saw her new room.
It is the little things that are big things.

Oh and that didn’t go anywhere.