Oh my goodness, it's here! It's Pinterest Challenge Reveal Day! Woo to the hoo, I think I might be more excited than a kid on Christmas. Although I have to admit, I have rushed to put this post together because finishing up my project to reveal has taken way longer than I thought it would (isn't that how it always is?)

{Via Young House Love}

If you remember a couple of weeks ago I posted about my need for a large desk space that both me and the boyfriend can sit at and also double as a great place for crafting. Thanks to furniture goddess Ana White, I can check "desk" off my list of things to do.

The inspiration for this project came from Pottery Barn. I fell in love with the Bedford Project Table when I searched for craft tables on Pinterest.

{Via Pottery Barn}

But its $1000 + price tag me no likey. So after a bit more searching on Pinterest I found a knock off version on Ana White.

Though the magic of the internet, here is what I created! Ta-Da!





There are still some kinks to work out and some styling that needs to happen in the room in general because right now it is basically a box with desk in it. But hey that is what spring break is for :)

But let's back up a second, how did this table come to fruition being that I own no power tools? Nor a car that could transport giant pieces of plywood or lumber. After considering going to Lowe's (then not considering after many people I talked to said that often time their cuts were crapola) I found a wonderful local lumber yard that cut all my wood to size for free! Boo-yah!



They even marked all the sizes on the wood so I wouldn't have to re-measure. Talk about the most wonderful customer service that made this DIY newbie feel all warm and fuzzy. Total cost of lumber, screws, wood glue, and finishing nails: $124.37.

Following Ana White's plans was easy. We (my handy Aunt Cyndi and I) had everything put together in about 3 hours, which included drilling pilot holes and screwing everything together. When we were finished it looked like this:

This thing is solid as a rock but surprisingly not too heavy and it is actually three pieces. The only part I can't lift by myself is the top. Next came the finishing which is where my project when from being quick and easy to long and challenging.

There was one snafu with the Ana White plans, pieces that helped finished the shelves were too short, so I was left with a small quarter inch gap in four places.

Nothing a little wood filler can't fix. Actually it took a lot of wood filler. The first go around gave me the above. A second coat and some sanding left me with this:

I am happy to report that after priming and painting, you can't even tell there was a gap.

After filling all the holes and sanding everything within an inch of its life, I was ready to prime and paint. Check out my gansta sanding gear - yes, I was too cheap to buy a mask. I may have been sneezing dust for a week.


There aren't any pictures of the painting process mostly because it took two weeks. I made sure to let everything dry completely before painting additional coasts. I used Zinser Cover Stain Oil Based Primer, some off the shelf satin white Valspar paint, and Minwax Polycrylic.


 After one coat of primer, two coats of white paint, and two coats of poly, this baby is dunzo.



 Unfortunately the room is too small to fully capture its glory (these picture were taken from the closet so I could get as much of the desk in the frame, haha).

Total cost of this project was about $200, luckily I taught one section of 6th grade math last year so I know that I saved 80% of my hard earned dollars by crafting this baby myself. Heck yes!

 Now I just gotta move everything from our spare bedroom, organize, and style...my favy! Definitely stay tuned for some updates over spring break. I am thinking the color palette in here is going to be with some cool blues with pops of yellow. Design Seeds provided some color inspiration.

{Via Design Seeds}

{Via Design Seeds}

I can't wait to check out all the other great Pinterest inspired projects on Young House Love and Bower Power. If you are stopping by from the link up be sure to leave a comment with a link to your post - I would love to see what you did and see some new blogs.