Ahhh, furniture from the days of yore. What am I talking about. All my furniture is from the days of yore.

When I graduated college I bought a desk/dresser/bookshelf “set” (I am using the term “set” very loosely here) on Craigslist. It was an … economical choice. I also didn’t bother grabbing the desk since it was in pretty bad shape, but I knew I needed a really small desk for my bedroom in my first apartment.

Here she is:

I painted her Behr’s “Lettuce Alone” and called it a day. She is pretty beat up, so I knew making this look like a polished piece was never going to happen.

Enter front porch.

We have a screened-in porch that leads to the front door of our house. In my attempt to squeeze out as much fall decorating as I could this year, I wanted to have a sort of table area for decoration and UPS packages etc.

While the desk was mighty useful in the guest bedroom as a catchall for laundry, receipts and the entrails of other construction projects, I thought she’s be much more useful on the porch – and it fit perfectly between our front door and the window!

I took her out on the driveway and sanded her down. I sanded down all the corners to the bare wood. I knew that I wanted this piece to be distressed in hopes of making her beat-up qualities look more charming.

Then I used a paint sample can (a living room reject) of tan. I’m sorry, I don’t know what color it was.

Enter: brain fart. I can’t find my in-process photos, which I’m sure would have been thoroughly entertaining for you all.

I gave the piece 3 coats of paint. Then I got out my sandpaper and went. to. town.

I should have used the Dremel sander, but Moose wasn’t home and I couldn’t find the attachment. Being impatient like I am, I just did it by hand. No magical tricks, I just sanded down the corners and edges until I got to the wood. Since the piece was once painted white before my green, pieces of green and white showed through giving it more character.

Then I stained the whole piece over the paint with Minwax Golden Pecan stain. This gave the desk a weathered feel and helped the exposed wood sections warm up.

Total Project Cost: Since I had most of these supplies on hand I only spent $1.50 on the knob.

Desk: Free
Paint: Free (a sample can costs $2.50)
Stain: Free (a small jar costs $4.00)
Sandpaper: Free (about $3.00 for a multi-pack)
Hardware: $1.50

It took me about three hours in total work time

And I immediately put some fall decorations on it. I told you I could be impatient.