Thrifty Thursday

We have 5 Children between the two of us. Yes, that was not a typo-5.....Five.....Cinco..... a whole basketball team. Having this many children means that you have this many birthday parties every year, and this many to buy for for Christmas, and pretty much everything times 5. How do we make it work? Sometimes, its a miracle and we wouldn't be able to explain how it happens, but it always does.

Honestly though, Thrift Store Shopping. At some point in our lives Thrift Store Shopping just became the norm. We hung up our hopes and dreams of owning the next best things hot off the shelves, and realized that things are only new until you purchase them. Once you hand over your money and take that item out of the store- its no longer new. So....why wouldn't we shop thrift stores first?

Since staying home with my little guy, we have been doing 'school work' at home. We didn't have a good place to do it though. Sure, we had the dining table- but that's usually always covered in crafting supplies and projects setting out to dry. So, I went on a search for a small desk. I found this sweet little desk for my little guy. It was wobbly, it had scratches all over it, and the chalkboard top had some writing on it that was permanent. It was only $9! For both the char and the desk! It was PERFECT! Mainly because it was in my price range, but mostly for what I saw it could be.

Your probably thinking I lost my mind, like my husband often does, but hear me out. With a little elbow grease and some TLC I just knew this piece was going to be amazing. Now- me- being the over zealous type and super ready to get started, I didn't get a good before pic. I did however get this cute pic of our kitty, Lily, posing gracefully on the chair that went with the desk that might give you an idea of what it looked like before.

 The first thing I did was take some sand paper to the whole thing. It seemed to have a clear coat finish on it, and I needed to rough it up so that my new paint would stick to it. Now, as I mentioned before, we have lost many things in the moving process. One of those things was my hand sander. It really is missed greatly by myself, especially in times like these.  When I said to use elbow grease- that's exactly what I had to do. But, anything for a smile on our kids face right?

Once I got it all sanded down, I taped off the chalk board top and then took it outside and started painting. My little guy is really into everything Spider-man right now, so I opted for a true Blue and Red color of spray paint. I wanted it to have a type of Ombre look to it, but didn't want the colors to mix, because well, Blue and Red make Purple, and there is no Purple to Spider-man. I started with the piece upside down, and painted the blue on first and allowed it to dry all the way, then I flipped it over and painted the top and worked my way down to meet the blue. I didn't want a straight edge on it, that way it would look like the colors just kind of fade into each other.

 

Once the Red was completely dry, I peeled back the tape to uncover the chalk board, and then taped off around that. I used a spray chalk board paint, and had to use a few layers to cover up what was already on it. Once the chalkboard paint was dry, I brought it inside to complete the finishing touches. I used white puff paint from the craft department at Wal-Mart, and created some spider webs to complete the Spider-Man look.

This is the finished product! My little boy just loves it. He could hardly wait to use it to start his school work.  Sometimes he even likes to sit and eat his breakfast at his little desk. Of course, there are some imperfections to it, but your children will never see that, they will only see how much you care to make them something they will love.