Living Room Ideas and a New Desk

My husband came home with a gorgeous chair a couple of months ago that sparked a desire in me to build a writing desk to accessorize it.  Knowing I was going to put that desk in our living room, rather than our den, I decided to give the whole space a redo. 

First, the desk.......I used table legs that I salvaged from an old table, so, no cost for those.  The top is constructed of four 1 x 6 planks that were 4 feet long.  I used inexpensive pine from Lowe's in the lower grade section.  This is good wood, you just have to look through it and make sure you don't get warped boards.  It has more knot holes than the more expensive pine, but if you are going to paint it, that isn't a concern.  The entire desk cost me just under $30 to build.  A very similar version of this desk sells at Pottery Barn for $600!!  I don't know about you but that's a little out of our budget.  :)

To build the desk, I followed the same plan as my rustic kitchen table.  However, since I wasn't going for a rustic style with the desk and instead, a more polished look, I attached the apron (sides) to the inside of the legs at the joint (instead of the outside) using L brackets, as shown in the photo below, very similar to how I built my dining room table.

For extra stability and sturdiness, I also inserted 2 large screws down through the top of the table into the top of each leg, pre-drilling the holes first.  Since this would be a painted desk, I sunk the screws, filled with spackle and sanded the entire piece, after completely dry, for softer edges.  This is how the table looked before I painted it. 

The table legs were previously stained a dark walnut, so before I painted them white, I primed them with spray primer so I wouldn't need so many coats of white paint.  I painted the entire piece with Valspar ultra white paint.  It was a pretty easy desk to build and we are so excited with the results!

It fits perfectly into the corner I visualized it in, and I love how it pairs with the vintage chair.  This bookshelf was previously black and I didn't care for it.  It made the corner feel like a big black hole.  I primed and painted it with Valspar ultra white and now it really makes our favorite books stand out, I love that, and a room full of books is a cozy one.  And the large basket I picked up at a yard sale for 3 bucks crowns the top perfectly.

The accessories on the desk came from my wonderful hubby from one of his "picking" trips.  The antique wood box is very old and a great place for note cards and stationary.  The envelope holder holds, well, envelopes and some of my vintage post cards from 1905.  The little blue green bowl is perfect for snacks.  Most of the other things in the room I already had.  The wood crate also came from hubby.  They are great for storage.

The curtains and pillows I made from canvas dropcloth.  I stenciled the G on the pillows by combining black craft paint with textile medium to create a washable paint that is also soft and doesn't harden your fabric.  The center pillow I made from an authentic burlap coffee sack that I ordered after Carla at Hammers and High Heels mentioned a great place to buy them in this post.  Thanks Carla!

About this coffee table......it used to be a dining room table!!  I picked it up at a garage sale but it was too small for us to use as a dining table, so, I cut the legs off so that we could use it as a coffee table instead.  Perfect, huh!  The set of hand carved oars were another picked item from hubby.  I like the element of fun and energy they add to the room.

Here's the other side of the room and the wall art I made for hubby for Father's Day.  What do ya think?

I am loving the retro surfboard console table so much that I didn't want to put anything on it, other than this fan cause I didn't want to cover it up.  It's so fun!

I'm so excited to finally have a desk to write and blog at instead of the dining room table.  Thanks for stopping by today!  And thank you for your kind comments, I truly do appreciate every one of them.  Have a great day!

P.S.  If anyone is wondering......the paint on the walls is Manchester Tan by Benjamin Moore. Also, linking up with The Lettered Cottage today! Come join the fun!