{Craft Room Corner Desk}

I realized the other day that I have not posted the how-to for my craft room desk.  I find that a bit weird because it's a really important part of the room.  So here's how it came to be.

If you look at the photo above, you will see my craft room desk.  You can't find it through all the clutter, huh?  Well, it's behind the white stool in the corner.  It has the Audrey Hepburn picture on it.  Do you see it now?  If you still can't, that's okay.  It's a bit pitiful and covered with junk.  It consisted of two filing cabinets with a board over the top of them, and there wasn't much space for working on that thing.  When I decided to make over my craft room, I knew I had to have something bigger and prettier to work on.  So I started by painting the filing cabinets from the original desk white.  If you want the how-to on painting laminate, I discuss that {HERE}.  Once they were painted, I added some new drawer pulls I purchased at Hobby Lobby.

I knew I needed a new top for the filing cabinets, so who did I turn to?  Anna White, of course!  She had the PERFECT corner table top plan that fits over two filing cabinets!  Click {HERE} to see the full plans.  With the help of my dad--well, I actually just helped him--we built the table top out of MDF.  (It was our first time using MDF, and I would MUCH rather use wood!)  I wish I had more pictures of the process, but I was on deadline to get this thing done, and I didn't have time to take a lot of photos.  Anna has great plans, though, so just follow those.  :)  Once we finished building the top, we put it on my newly painted filing cabinets, and here it is.

For the finish on the table, I primed it with Zinsser primer, and then I painted it with the same paint I used on the walls in the room.  Looking at this picture, though, you can tell that the desk top is really plain.  And if you follow my blog, you know that I don't really do "plain."  So I decided to add a little something to the table top--a white stripe around the edge.  Here's how to paint a perfectly straight, crisp stripe around the edge of a table top.

1. Tape along the edge of the table top following the straight edge.
2. Tape another row of tape right beside that tape, making sure NOT to overlap the tape.
3. Tape another row of tape right beside that tape, making sure NOT to overlap the tape.  At this point, you should have three rows of tape going along the entire edge of your table top.
4. Carefully remove the middle row of tape.  Now you have a perfectly straight border to paint.
5. Paint over the inside edges of your tape with the same paint you used on the table top.  This will keep the border paint from seeping under the tape and messing up your straight lines.  Then use a pouncer or a foam roller to apply the stripe paint within your taped border, being careful not to overload your brush with paint.
6. When your paint is almost dry, remove all the tape.

After I was finished painting, I applied three coats of Polycrylic to my table top to protect it from all my crazy crafting!

You can see that just by adding the white stripe around the edge of the table top, I was able to give the table top some definition.  It stands out much better now against the walls.

If you compare the new desk to the old desk, well, there is no comparison!  I have so much more room now, and since the desk is lighter, the room seems lighter.  You can see the full room reveal {HERE}, along with links to all the projects I did in the room.  My craft room is definitely my favorite room in the house now!