Monday, July 23, 2012

Desk and Magnetic Bulletin Board Projects

Whew! It's hot around here. 
Did I say that already?
Well it's been an eventful week. Lots of fun and projects.
I finally finished my big guy's room. All it needs now are some small accessories.
I'll show you what I've done so far:
Here is the $10 desk I got for him before:
 As you can see it's nothing fancy. Really just a place for him to keep his school supplies and do his homework. It's that cheap laminate. Not real wood.
So how do you paint something like this, easy?
Of course! Annie Sloan Chalk Paint!
I had some of the Graphite color and that would go perfectly in his room :)
I just wiped it down to remove dust and propped it on some newspapers. 
The nice thing about her chalk paint-there is no odor.
Perfect for asthmatics like myself.
I gave it about 2 coats making sure I didn't see any brush strokes {you must invest in a good brush. Trust me it's worth it} I let it dry in between coats for a few minutes then after the final coat, I let it dry for about 25 minutes before I gave it a light coat of clear MinWax.
I am excited to try Annie Sloan's Soft Wax, but since funds are tight right now, I'll go with whatever I have ;)
After the wax was left on for about an hour, I came back and buffed it out with a soft, white, old t-shirt. I then put the handles back on and voila!!

 I like it! What do you think?
And since I was on a roll I went ahead and made a 
magnetic bulletin board for his room too :)
It was very simple and not that expensive.
I simply bought a thin piece of sheet metal over at Home Depot. It was $6.00.
And there was enough left over to make the little guy one for his own room.
Here's what you'll need:
:A pretty picture frame:
:Metal snippers or old scissors:
:Tape measure:
:Sharpie:
:Drop cloth or any fabric:
:painter's tape:
:duct tape: 

First you will take apart your frame and spray paint it. I spray painted it with black chalkboard paint because that is the only black paint I had.
While it was drying, I measured the insert that was in the frame and marked it with a sharpie on the sheet metal.
Be careful because it is sharp.
Then I did the same with the drop cloth leaving about an inch all the way around the perimeter to fold over the back of the frame.
 After my frame was dry, I brought it in and put it together.
I got the drop cloth and stretched it tightly across the sheet metal securing it with the painter's tape first all the way around. 
If you've worked with duct tape before, you know it's pretty tricky to make it stick where you want it to.
So I figured I'd secure it first this way then when I was satisfied with the tightness, I would go over that with the duct tape. 
It worked out great.
Then I just snapped it into the frame and pushed the frame fasteners down to secure the sheet metal further.
It looks really nice and so inexpensive.
I had the drop cloth, the frame and the rest of the supplies. The only thing I bought was the sheet metal. Make sure you get the thin sheet metal so it can fit inside your picture frame.
I found it in the duct work aisle.
Here she is:

Pretty and Neat
So I told you I was on a roll ;)
Since I was working in his room already, I decided to finally put up his curtains I got at Ikea, super cheap, months ago.
I have an excuse for taking so long though.
The curtain road I got was too flimsy and it bowed at the middle.
So pinterst here I come!
I remembered that some bloggers are using electrical conduit to make their own curtain rods.
I measured the thickness of the rod and off I went to home depot
I got a 7 foot rod for only $1.49!!! Can you believe it!
I'll be using those things forever now!
I simply had the hubster cut it down to size and spray painted it black.
I had the finials from the other rod so, my hubby made me some wooden plugs and I just simply screwed on the finials.
Tada!!
These are perfect for my big guy's room because the sun hits his window something fierce and these block out a lot of that light and heat. For an extra bit of punch, I added some 3 inch grossgrain ribbon. I bought it at Ribbons and Bows Oh My!
Guys, if you haven't shopped for ribbon there you are MISSING out! I got two large spools for like $3.49 each!!
These curtains are looooong. About 90 inches long and I still had ribbon left over. The ribbon is simply stitched over the curtains close to the edge. 
I really like the way his room is coming together.
I need to buy him a snazzy metal chair now and accessorize a little here and there. 

{artwork: my son ---bed: Ikea}

But my, what a long way from how it looked like:


Big.Difference.

And you can see how the room has been coming along here:



So now you see why I've been MIA!!
Ha!
And even if it HAS taken me forever and a day to make his room happen, I can pat myself on the back for the big transformation.
He loves it.
And that is what's most important.
Patty

P.S.
Don't forget to enter the Kroger $25 giftcard giveaway going on now below.

Would you like to comment?

  1. Hi Patty, I'm a new follower from Uncommon Slice of Suburbia's link party. I really like your work! I was attracted to your thumbnail because we did a 'boys' room redo also for our grandson at our weekend home which is a log cabin. I'm two thumbnails after your's if you care to check it out. I just did an ASCP project for the first time a few weeks ago. It's somewhat addicting, isn't it?!

    ReplyDelete
  2. HI Doreen! Welcome! Yes it is addicting especially when there's so little to prep and no odor.
    I'll go check yours out. Thanks for following :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Patty! i came over thru Knock Off Decor and really enjoyed your mirror tutorial and read all the parts of the remake of your boy's room. I wanted to advise that you go to In My Own Style because yesterday she did a review of Annie's paint vs. DIY with non sanded grout vs. DIY with Plaster of Paris. I am a big Annie fan and have been working on some pieces I purchase at half off day at Goodwill here in Tarrant County. I live over in Cowtown and at first had to drive to McKinney or order online from Miss Butterbug to get my Annie. I agree with you about the wax. I just got to the bottom of my first can of clear wax. I find that it takes a lot of it to remove dark wax as they instruct as the pieces I'm doing seemed a little too dark when I applied the dark wax. Several blogs I follow have suggested Bowling Alley Wax as an alternative. I think that it is cheaper. I'm about to google it and purchase some to try. Miss Mustard Seed has a video regarding waxes and she mentioned Annie and several other brands. I don't have a site but you can reach me at lbremers@att.net.

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  4. Thanks for the heads up! I sure will check out her blog. Have a great weekend.

    ReplyDelete

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