DIY Pinterest CHALLENGE

One of my most favorite blogs of all time is Young House Love. Last week Sherry from YHL, along with Katie Bower, Emily Henderson from HGTV, and Emily's friend Lana, decided to "challenge" all readers to DIY something from Pinterest. See the hilarious video here.

Luckily for me, I had an unlucky piece of furniture that could use a little TLC. Not that it was in horrible condition...but it wasn't exactly exciting...

Exhibit A:

A desk that was abandoned in the abyss of my basement (if you just thought "yay for alliteration! congrats, you're a nerd like me!). Anyways, the desk is an antique that is cute, but a bit bland. And not getting any use. I wanted to spice it up a little.

First- I considered sanding it by hand, and started to do so. After 15 minutes outside my fingers hurt and I had gotten no where. Onto plan b.

Plan B- I went to my neighborhood hardware store this morning and bought a $10 can of all purpose primer. It took me probably 10 minutes to coat the entire desk in primer.

Exhibit B:

You can see I took the drawer out to paint it. Already I thought the primer made it look ten times better.

Colors: I knew that I wanted to use turquoise, partly because I love the color, and partly because I already had a pint of turquoise paint from a leftover project. I also knew that I knew that I wanted to leave part of it white, being especially inspired by this "pin":

























Now I know that desk doesn't have any white, but the simplicity of it is originally what made me think of my desk, and then I admired how the pop of color was subdued by the stained wooden top. But instead of just copying this desk, I wanted to do something different. And I love the combo of turquoise and white. Or anything and white. Or anything and turquoise, really.

After much contemplating what to paint white and what to paint turquoise, I made up my mind.
A couple hours of later (after sweating in my sports-bra and jean shorts- gotta love humid summers in the midwest) this little guy was born. Or reborn. Whichever.

The color is way more turquoise in person. Here's a close-up of the knob:

Overall, it was a fun project and I'm glad I did it. I don't really think I would have done something if the crazy ladies in the video above had brought up the idea.

Oh did I mention, I owned everything except for the primer? This was a $10 project. Not bad.

As for why I took the photos outside, it is really the only place I could get far away from the desk in a pretty background. (Take a photo in the garage? I don't think so). And someone else wanted to share the spotlight.

Farewell and happy blogging/reading/pinning...