make a Desk with Shelves

Make a Desk & Shelves out of an Old Table

When my husband and I first moved in our new house 7 years ago, I was told I couldn’t buy any new furniture {Boo Hiss}. SO what’s a girl to do? Overcome this “challenge”, stick out my tung and say, “I can do what ever I want”. Well, maybe it didn’t quite go like that, but I did get what I wanted…my shelving I needed to make an office space in my living-room. (and guess who uses it most… my dear hubby!)

As I was shopping my house, which I tend to do often, I came across the table and leaves from my great-grandmother’s table. It was broken in half and needed some pretty major repairs (which I didn’t know how to do). Maybe tha’s how come it had made the past 5 moves and sat in the attic for safe keeping. It’s funny when you don’t have much money, the things you can dream up and do! The first thing I saw were the leaves laying there and my brain said “SHELVES”. The only problem was there were only two shelves and I needed to fill an entire space. {Light~Bulb Moment} Why not make a desk out of the broken table parts and have a desk with the works?!?!

Step 1: Find an old table at a junk sale, from your grandma’s attic, the side of the road, the Good Will store, steal from a friend (not really) or where-ever is CHEAP & DIRTY (sounds like when I was in my 20’s, ha,ha!).

Thanks Grandma!

Step 2: Make minor repairs if needed. Every table is going to be different (just as God intended). I had to re-attach the legs and and add the center legs for support. The piece of wood which was on the other part of the broken mess was no way coming off, so again, I overcame and called my father-in-law. (you noticed I didn’t say husband). He was kind enough to figure out how to add the two blocks to give the center legs the height they needed so the table had enough support. Please keep in mind you only see the front two legs. Someone with woodworking talent and ability would be able to attache the back legs to a part that didn’t make sense, but I was in a hurry (shocker)!

Naylor-Rigged

Not so pretty yet!

Step 3 (optional): If you are so inclined and can’t stand the site of an ungodly amounts of messy cords, you can “staple gun” fabric to the underneath/backside. I did have a bit of help from my SIL Tana since I don’t sew, but I don’t think you’d have to sew if you are handy with the staple gun.

I love the texture

Step 4: Find some fun L-brackets. You can even splurge here if you want due to the “cheapness” of the table. I found these years ago at Pottery Barn (I believe). If all you can get your hands on are the plain old metal L-brackets from Home Depot or Walmart, then for heavens sake, paint them black and be proud of them! Attach them to the wall at an appropriate height from the table. Don’t forget to level it… unless you’re an eye-baller like me of course. ( I think I did in deed get out the level for this since I was going to be sitting my cute stuff of them).

I'm in Love these L-brackets

Step 5: Now put it all together, shop your house for your fave things and make it yours!!! At this point in the game, I have to confess… I never sanded, painted, stained, primed, barely dusted or cleaned this table. I wanted it to have “character” and not look like I got it from Target. SO there world… I’m cute and lazy!

hang-em high

She's got Legs!

Step 6: Enjoy your labor and thank whomever this came from. {Thanks John and Ruth Sawyer!} Hopefully you won’t have any Indian Givers when they see what you can do!

Love my Space and my Dog!

I’m joining in on another FUN linky party @:

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