Monday, February 4, 2013

New Desk tops


My new house has a space next to the laundry room that I converted into a small office. I would have liked to have one large desk to accommodate my sewing machine and my computer but the corner wall is odd and made it impossible. Instead of one large desk, I must make 2 custom small ones.
One for sewing and one for computer work.
Both desk tops will be attached to the back wall but one of them will have 2 front legs and the other just a curtain to hide my printer and other supplies.

How to make desk number one:


Go to Lowe's, purchase an already made and unfinished table top measuring 36x24 and 2 table size legs measuring 29 or 30 inches.

To give your tabletop the aged look I have done on mine, mix 1 cup white vinegar with steel wool and let it sit for 48 hours. Use a foam brush to apply the mixture and wipe excess liquid with a rag. Let your newly stained tabletop dry overnight. You might need to do this a couple of time to reach the desired reclaimed wood look you want.

  
Paint your wooden legs the color of your choice, I chose to paint mine white and distress them a bit with sand paper.
Attach both legs to the front bottom of the tabletop.
Screw a piece of wood to the wall and then screw the table top to it. Voila!

How to make desk number two:


This tabletop is less wide than the first one but much longer. It measures 48x20.
I wanted to try a different finish but I still wanted the reclaimed wood look. So this time, I added some brewed coffee to my vinegar and steel wool mixture to see if it made any difference.

Guess what?......It did!  Can you see the difference?


To attach this desktop, I simply screwed 4 pieces of wood to all 3 walls. One on the right, one on the left and two on the back and screwed the tabletop to them. I used an inexpensive tension rod to hold the curtain I sewed and voila!

How to print on wood:


Materials:
1 - Grafix or other brand transparency sheet
1 - inkjet printer
minwax or other brand name furniture sealing wax

There are many ways you can print on wood. Some people use freezer paper. I have tried it and it works well but I did not like the fact that I had to cut the freezer paper to size and use adhesive to attach it to a card stock sheet (because it curls and won't fit on your printer's feeder properly). The worse part though, is that freezer paper is white and you cannot see your design once you flip the paper over. This makes it very hard to place your design exactly where you want it to be.

So I am going to share with you, my favorite way to print on wood!
I use Grafix transparency sheets. One side of the sheet is shiny and smooth, the other side has some type of coating that helps avoid smearing of the ink. I print on the shiny and smooth side that way the ink can be transferred onto the wood and I can just wash it out once I am done and reuse the same sheet over and over again.

Step one: Open your favorite image editor software, add your graphic and edit it to your liking. When you are finished editing, you can choose to reverse the image through your software or you may choose the mirror option on your printer's setting before printing. If your picture has letters or numbers and you do not reverse it at this point, your project will be ruined.

Step two: Flip your printed transparency sheet over so the ink faces down on your piece of wood. Hold it in place with one hand and rub a credit card over the design with the other hand. Keep rubbing and once in a while, lift one of corners up to see if the design has been transferred well. If the transfer looks good, you are done! if not...well you know what to do....just keep rubbing.

Step three: let the ink dry for a few minutes and rub a sealing wax all over the wood with a rag making sure to wipe any wax excess off.


I love my new desks. Now, I need to add some shelving above them to store all my crafts supplies.
Sorry the lighting wasn't great the day I took these pictures. I will update them once my office is completely finished.

Thank you for reading.

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