D.I .MY.

I've got a couple more projects to show off here. I'm no DIY queen but it is satisfying to rescue and repurpose. It's also easy on the old wallet! When we moved houses we had a different space to fill, getting rid of some items but needing others. Plus, every time I said we "needed something," Matt said "need" was a strong word. So, we got creative.

One thing we needed was a desk. We had a big one that broke in the move (one of our only casualties!), but it wouldn't have fit in this house anyway. One night driving home we spotted a desk on the curb. I shouted, "Praise the Lord, it's a desk!" and Matt groaned and shoved it in the back of the car.

It was a humble looking thing.

But I had grand plans.

First, I covered the top with a trash bag and scotch tape (I couldn't find the painters tape in the new basement) and spray painted the rest. Turns out I'm a horrible spray painter and it looked like a real mess, quite unlike the even coat I had imagined. Matt helped with a couple coats and it finally looked smooth enough.

Then, I looked all over town and Anthropologie in the city for hardware . . . couldn't find what I was looking for so I bought some from Target online. I waited eagerly for it to arrive . . . and it didn't. . . until my neighbor flagged me down and said she had a package delivered to her instead of us. My hardware!

Finally . . .

Ta Da!

I love how it turned out!

The desk is kind of in a strange place - the kitchen. But our kitchen is large and quite long, and originally quite poorly laid out. There was a space in the baseboard cut out that fit the desk perfectly . . . because that's where the island used to be, over near the door. Didn't make sense to us so we heaved the island into the center of the kitchen.

Matt knew I was craving a proper mudroom so he made this nice little area, perfect for coming through the kitchen door.

He disappeared into the basement one day and emerged with this:

A creative little shelf! I love the nautical look of it.

He also pulled some hooks off a door he found in the basement so we had a spot to hang jackets and bags.

It's really a great and practical spot. I'm not thrilled about the chair, which was another side-of-the-road find. I used to have this sweet little thing there:

Which was already painted green when I got it at a garage sale, and I recovered the base with a cloth napkin. It looked great in the kitchen until we got our rug a couple weeks ago and then it didn't look so great there . . . so it lives happily in a corner of the living room.

And that's the story of the desk!