This was a fun project.  My husband and I thought that we wanted something for this spot in our living room, so we decided; why not build a writing desk! We had never really built anything before and really didn’t have any tools, except the basic things.

So we began with a pre-cut 2′x4′ sheet of plywood along with some left over moldings from the house construction.  We also found some left over balustrades to use as legs and basically put it all together. (we did buy a hand mitre box for the corners).  The legs are offset in the front to allow us to have it touch the wall and not have to worry about the baseboard heat. Once assembled, I added various appliques to the front and sides for some added detail.  The next step was to paint and stencil.

The chair we got from an unfinished furniture shop and I painted that to match the desk.

The picture above the desk has an interesting twist, I started with an old frame we had found and I added a gold finish.  We then inserted a scrap piece of thin plywood into it after applying a thin base coat of paint.  Our idea was to use a rub-on decal (remember tatouage from HSN?) and after we applied it, it was a bit to shiny so I began to paint over it and start over.  However, after one coat over the original, I thought it seemed as if I could hand rub some of the wet paint off of the decal images and get a shadow effect, so i gave it a try. I basically took what seemed to be a mistake and turned it into a unique look.  I get so many compliments on it and no one can figure out how I did it.