Refurbished Old School Desks

We are a Homeschool family, so you could imagine how excited we were to have these two old school desks given to us!  Yep, that's right, FREE!  =)
As you can see they are old & rusty and have been used very well.

Wouldn't they look nostalgic restored to their original color and condition?!  Fortunately, these two cuties came to live with our two princesses, so they will be getting the "Royal Treatment!" ;)  First, they had to be cleaned.  The girls scrubbed away.  You would not believe the amount of dirt and grim on these desks, not to mention the gum, ugh!

 

Next, I sanded them down, carefully removing all the rust spots.  I tried to keep a cloth over my nose, as I didn't want to breath in that rusty metal dust.  It just seemed like it would be harmful to my lungs.

At this point, we were still not 100% on how we were going to redo the desks.  I was considering putting a soft princess cushion on the seat, to keep little tushes from getting sore on those wood seats, but I had not seen this done before and thought it might not look right.  Plus, it was extra time and work.  After talking with the hubby, he assured me he could remove the rivets and install a comfy cushion!  What a great guy!  =) So, the seats had to come off.  He tapped and drilled out the rivets and the seat was off!

A good wipe down and they were ready for primer.  Daddy primed the desks also, since he knows how to spray paint. I bought one can of white primer for the little desk that is going to be painted pink and one can of gray primer for the bigger desk that is going to be painted purple.  However, the gray primer covered much better and the can had more paint for the same price, lesson learned.

After the primer dried, we taped and spray painted our color combinations. Our girls chose "Tangled" and "Strawberry Shortcake" for their desks.  I upholstered the seats with some foam and our chosen fabrics.  We purchased the "Tangled" fabric from Joanne's Fabrics and bought the "Strawberry Shortcake" fabric from Hancock Fabrics.  We carefully placed the character decals that the girls had picked out from Roommates Decor.com, which we found cheaper through Amazon.com.   Then, daddy sprayed on a final clear coat to protect the paint and decals.  Lastly, we re-assembled the desk top and seat cushion and Voila!  The finished product is perfect for our homeschool, much nicer to look at, and our girls are so proud of their desks!  =)