Before and After

In April 2012, I picked up a desk from a thrift store with plans to turn it into a sewing table/desk for Shayla. I intended to give it to her for Mother's Day that year. When that deadline passed I planned on giving it to her for her birthday. And then I thought it would make a great Christmas gift. And then I thought I'd give it to her on New Year's Day, and then Valentine's Day, and then Spring Break, and then Easter, and then Mother's Day, and her birthday, and the-first-day-of-summer day, and Wyatt's birthday, and congratulations-here's-your-desk day, and finally after seventeen months, I gave it to her on Sunday, September 15th. No extravagant hoopla. No bows, or ribbons, or confetti popping out of the drawers or streamers falling from the sky and balloons drifting through the air. Nope, none of that. I just finished it and brought it from it's basement imprisonment upstairs, where it will find a new life sitting beneath a sewing machine.

So... a little about this desk. I found it at a small, overpriced thrift store in Herndon, VA. This desk, fortunately, was the only thing I didn't feel was marked way above it's value, and so I picked it up for only 25 bucks. I started sanding off the well-worn finish about a week later. That took some time. I didn't have a decent power sander, so it was slow going at first. Then, for father's day, Shayla surprised me with a super awesome belt sander. OK, she didn't really surprise me with it, I found it on Amazon and told her I wanted it for Father's Day, so she got it and said, "Surprise! I got you a belt sander!" I was pretty surprised. It made the sanding job fly by! It still took longer than I would have liked, though. I quickly found out that snapping your fingers or giving your nose a little wiggle, in fact, will not make things magically finish themselves.

Back to the desk. When I brought it home I found an old newspaper clipping from what I would guess was the 1960's or early 70's. If I recall correctly, the clipping told the story of somebody's achievement or great feat. It had accolades of some sort. I don't really remember what or who for, but I guessed it was for somebody in the family of whomever owned this desk. Or an acquaintance. Or a secret crush. If I had to guess, I'd say that the article told the story of how this person rode a bicycle for twenty-nine straight days, never changed into a new pair of socks during the entire trip, and because of all the sweat and smelly foot stuff from riding the bike, developed a nasty case of fungus-foot. At the time, this person was riding a bike of course, so the media perceived this person as an extraordinary athlete and thus coined the term, "athlete's foot". Because of this athlete's foot problem, this person, while still riding a bike, developed a formula for a foot powder that would eliminate stinky foot smell problems, and at the same time rid the foot of the nasty athlete's foot fungus, making it the first topical medication capable of multi-tasking. This amazing feat (riding a bike for twenty-nine days) coupled with the scientific and medical discovery, warranted an article in the local paper. This is what I think the news clipping was about. I could be wrong, but probably not.

OK, back to the desk. Again. Along with the newspaper clipping, there was also a sheet of lined paper with a child's handwriting on it. I think it was left over schoolwork, or homework that the child somehow lost inside one of the desk drawers and, upon returning to school told the teacher, "My dog ate it", not only becoming the first child to lie about losing homework, but also inventing the popular "dog ate it" excuse. It's easy to see the family that owned this desk was very forward-thinking and their contributions to society are insurmountable.

I debated on wether to sand down the desk and stain it (I am a huge fan of stained wood. Seriously, a huge fan) or to paint it. I had seen several examples of painted furniture on Pinterest (yes, I am on Pinterest. No, you can't follow me; good luck even finding me.) and they all looked great. In the end, I decided to do both, painting the bottom, and staining the top. The result, is ground breaking and earth shattering all at the same time. I know you are probably thinking, "Those are the same thing", but they aren't. Ground breaking and earth shattering are two completely separate things, and when combined, it's almost as completely glorious and amazing as riding a bike for twenty-nine days. Now, I didn't stop there. As awesome as a painted bottom and stained top may sound, I took it up another notch.

Of course, you might say that's impossible. I say you are wrong. Inventing an odor eliminating, fungus killing foot powder while on a sweaty, twenty-nine day bike ride, or inventing the "My dog ate it" excuse revolutionizing the way students account for missing homework were impossible. Until somebody did them. So kicking up the awesome factor of this desk was only impossible until I actually did it. I know, this all blows your mind. I'll pause for a second to let it sink in, and then I'll tell you what I did to make this desk super extraordinary amazing awesome.

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I mapified it.

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"You what?" you might ask. I mapified it, I'd say again. I'd try to explain the awesomeness of mapifying something, but I think it would just make your brain hurt trying to comprehend it. In the case of this desk, I lined the drawers with maps, added modge podge, and a miracle baby panda-gator was born.

Total project cost, about $80.

Below are before and after pics. A warning though, if you aren't used to seeing awesome things, you might want to shield your eyes.

Before.

After.
Just kidding! Gotcha. This is the same before pic. I've got the top mostly sanded at this point.

In all it's mapified glory.