BEFORE and AFTER: The Makeover of a “Dumpster Desk”
Eh– whatever the reason, thrifty souls like myself look at it as an opportunity to transform other people’s castoffs from the “uninspiring” to the “unbelievable.”
And that’s exactly what happened with this “dumpster desk”!
When I found this desk years ago at our condo complex, it was sitting there, just as perfect as could be. It had all its drawers. I just took them out and stupid me forgot to put them back in for this picture :). But it really was in great condition. I stopped the car so fast, put it in Park, and lugged that baby up the sidewalk and down 2 sets of stairs just to put it in our storage unit.
BEFORE
We didn’t have the space for it in our condo, but I knew one day we’d buy a house and it would serve its purpose for me.
Sure enough, a couple years after, we were finally settling into another house, and we had all our things packed and loaded. And–GASP!–hubby almost left this desk behind!! “There’s no space in the truck.”
No space, my foot!!! When you save a desk from the trash and hold onto it for 2 years, you don’t just leave it behind because there’s “not enough space.”
Glad I was able to save it twice!
Here’s How I Transformed It
The Hardware
Normally, knobs like this go for about $8 or $9 each at that store, but I picked these up for about $2-$3 each. Love them!
Broken Opportunities
When furniture looks like this, people want to throw it out, but for us DIY’ers, it’s just an opportunity to score a good deal 🙂
Then I added wood filler to the old holes. When it dried, I sanded it down, then slathered on a coat of paint over the drawer. Perfect!
AFTER!
CLICK HERE TO PIN THIS!
Download the 5 freebies!
Thrift Diving inspires women to decorate, improve, and maintain their home themselves...using paint, power tools, and thrift stores! Use these 5 printables, checklists, and ebooks to get started!
I once was looking for an oak chair to match my antique roll top desk, and I wanted the chair to be in the same general period as the desk. I haunted tag sales and auction houses, putting my name in to antique dealers to get this chair.
One day, stopping by my house on a break from work, I notice my across the street neighbor, who was moving, put out in his trash a perfectly good, albeit dusty, oak swivel chair! Two doors down from him, another neighbor was having a tag sale, so people were going slowly down our street. I spot the chair and two people in a car also spot the chair! I ran across the street, throw a couple of moving boxes into my neighbor’s house and yell, “Can I have your chair?” He yells back “yes!” and I run down his driveway, grab the chair, and without breaking stride, wheel it across the street, almost in front of the car! lol!
Later, coming home from work, I take the chair outside on my patio, spray WD-40 on the legs and wheels since they were stiff and yucky. Then I wiped on some Scott’s Liquid Gold, and viola! A lovely and FREE, period appropriate oak swivel chair that Id been looking for for so long!
My neighbor yells over at me, “Hey! Is that MY CHAIR?!” I said, “No! Its MY chair!” Now that it was working and clean, he wanted it back?! lol!
Lynn
really pleasant
Really inspiring one.
Bravo girl! Great results & very original idea with the shade thing going on! And those knos!! How do you keep such a clean uncluttered reading room? Sigh!
Thanks, Tracy! Trust me, it doesn’t always look clean! The boys throw their stuff all around in there! 🙂
OMG!! I LOVE that!! When you paint furniture, do you put some sort of clear finish on it??
Hi Kathy! Just clear wax. But I’ve started using this product called VAX, from Shabby Paints, and I really like it! It’s easier to put on than wax! I’m going to do a post about it soon!
great job love the color choice