Desk Reveal - Abby's Mini-Makeover Part I

My eight-year-old daughter is a junk collector. I've heard, "Can I keep that?" more times than I can count. She loves art, so there's always piles of paper, cut up boxes she pulled from my trash can, beads, random things glued to card stock, you name it, strategically placed all over her room. She's also very good at finding a use for anything that I would consider junk, and so the contents in and on top of her dresser, desk and night stand are always changing.

I was a lot like her as a child, and I really think that's all a part of being a creative little girl, so I don't mind so much that she does it, we just try to keep it under control. Once a month or so when she is in school, I will grab a trash bag and practically fill it full of art project remnants and junk, and then make her room pretty, and she usually is so happy that her room looks polished and put together that she doesn't even miss the now trashed junk.

A while back I went upstairs and snapped a picture of her desk as-is. I didn't add or take anything away, and this is how it usually looks on any given day.

It's not too bad, but definitely not a decorator's dream.

She has been asking me to paint her desk for a while now, and she wanted pink. This desk used to be in the living area of our old house, so it definitely needed a change in color. Here are a couple of the inspiration desks that we liked.

Original source not found.

Stiltskin Studios

I thought while I was changing the color, that we would work on de-junking and making her room a little more grown-up, so the desk project will be part one of a mini-makeover.

For those of you that follow my Facebook Page, you saw that last week I showed the refinishing process of her desk in real-time posts. You can see the process HERE. 

And after allowing it to cure for four days (because it's going to get a lot of use) here it is back in her room.

The wall art is from Target (circa 2012-13), as well as the lamp that somehow I got on clearance for $5!

The stool was a find from a thrift store that I refinished. You can read about that HERE.

I am sure that in a few days this desk will be full of Abby's personal treasures again, but that's okay. I'll always have pictures to remember it by.