Ladybird desk makeover

I haven't been posting much for the last few days because the latest project has taken quite a bit of time. It is now done, and I am extremely pleased with it.

Background: My sister picked up a well used old school desk at a market for Midi last year, but it needed a good makeover and with Mini on the way we just didn't get round to it. Then, on Sunday, I was browsing and stumbled across this fantastic desk makeover. I immediately knew just what to do with that old desk and Midi and I have spent the last few days liberally covered in paint in order to achieve our goal. (I have photographic evidence of her decision to paint wearing nothing but an apron in order to preserve her clothes.) I just moved it into her room and it looks wonderful.

The colour choices and ladybird theme are all Midi's ideas. The stool is an extra special addition. My parents bought a number of these stools from my old high school after I left and they were refurnishing the science labs so it's possible that I sat on one or more of them myself whilst learning about the periodic table. They're still going strong years later and when we undertook the desk transformation I made a cheeky request for one. It's a bit lopsided and was well marked before the paint job, but it's perfect. I think I may need to chop a couple of inches off each leg so that Midi can actually sit properly at the desk on it, but that's OK. She's out right now but I'll measure it up with her when she's home.

It works well with her butterfly mural:

And to keep it cheery, it's nice and bright inside too!

Just to show what a huge transformation this was, here's the desk before we started, covered in stickers and scratched varnish. Those stickers were a real pain to get off but with a fair amount of scrubbing and sanding we got there in the end. As you can see, the chalk box on the top is an addition - it was an old wooden baby jigsaw box that had lost its pieces, painted yellow and screwed in place. What a transformation!

 

Huge thanks to Marni and her Sassy sites blog for the inspiration.