A few weeks ago I found this great wrapping paper at HomeGoods. I picked it up knowing I had to use it somewhere in my house.

I immediately thought of this old desk I have been using for my sewing machine in my craft room. It had holes in the top from a now-missing tower and some water damage at the bottom from being stored in a garage at a college house. 

The first thing I did was fill the holes with a little bit of wood filler and give it a little sanding.

Note the water damage...

 Then I used the same paint that I used on my bookshelf makeover to paint two good coats over the top edge.

 Then I covered the whole top in a layer of Mod Podge with a cheap foam brush.  

 Next, I added the paper to the top and covered with another layer of Mod Podge with the same foam brush.  I took a luggage tag (the first flat tool I could grab) and slowly pushed all of the excess Mod Podge out from under the paper to make it nice and smooth.  I went over the whole top about a million times to get all of the bubbles out.

 I continued the whole process with the pull out drawer.

 I finished it up by painting a couple coats of the while paint over the rest, focusing on covering the water damage on the lower sides.  I love the way it turned out.  I may need to add glass to the top to protect the paper from my sewing machine, but now I am loving it without!  I have officially caught the refinishing bug, so keep an eye out for my future projects!

  

I was lucky enough to inherit this little bookshelf that had been hand made by my great grandfather.  Before I got it, it was used unjust about every room of my childhood home and repainted countless times. Most recently I painted the back of the shelves turquoise to accent the dining room in my college house.  When I moved to Nashville, the bookcase ended up in my bedroom. Turquoise didn't exactly match my grey and corral room, but I lived with it for over a year (exactly 13 months) before deciding to give it a much needed face-lift.

This is after one quick round with the sander.  

The plan was originally to sand it down just enough to smooth out 50 years worth of bumps and about 100 layers of white (and turquoise) paint. So I borrow/stole the sander my sister bought when we refinished her stairs and went to town. (First sign that I'm a beginner-- I started this in my bedroom. I quickly realized this was an outside activity. So while I was waiting for it to stop raining, I cleaned up the two inches of sanding dust that was now everywhere.)

After resuming the sanding outside, I discovered how beautiful the wood under all that paint was.  So, of course, I jumped on Pinterest to find an example of a white bookshelf with dark wood on the top and/or shelves. As with everything on Pinterest, there were about 1,000 examples. I found this one that was exactly what I was picturing in my head, minus the cutout sides (and the $300 price tag). 

I can't find the source of this picture.  If you know, help me out!

Fast forward through many hours of sanding. 

I used three coats of primer and three more coats of paint to cover up all of the turquoise on the back.  I used Glidden High Endurance Interior paint in Eggshell/Satin from Walmart with no color added.  It definitly looks more fresh and cheerful now! (Don't mind the cords.  I am searching for a solution to those that doesn't involve fire hazards.)

    

Meet the most handsome boy in town

Welcome to the world Noah Wyatt. My sister and her family welcomed a beautiful new addition last weekend. He came a little bit early, which was a blessing since he was almost 10 pounds! He is precious and perfect, except for the fact that he doesn't really like anyone to sleep between the hours of midnight and 5 am. His brother loves him already and his sister is coming around to the idea of him.  She is not asking us to send him back to Mommy's tummy anymore.  Needless to say my camera roll is full of pictures of this sweet boy.  Just one more for the road...

(Dad is a Texas fan. I was going to get him a Georgia hat, but after the first game I think I will wait until next year.).