My 200th Post, A Few Thoughts {and Updates}

Well, this one snuck up on me!  This is my 200th post and want to take the time to thank you {my loyal readers} for visiting and commenting and basically for giving this little 'ole blog the time of day!  I continue to refine my vision for this corner of the blogosphere, so you'll be seeing some different types of posts including travel, recipes, living in the South, more DIY, and loads of decor and design inspiration that fuels me.  I hope you'll give me feedback as I continue to learn and grow; I love hearing your thoughts!

El Presidente left town on Wednesday, and I immediately began dismantling our home office to get the long overdue makeover started.  Within an hour, I felt like I'd bitten off more than I could chew (ever feel like that when diving into a new project?).  I've had to take a few breaks over the last couple of days to get my head straight and my process focused.  You see, our home office is OURS (me, hubs, 3 teenagers) and organization --sustainable organization-- is a challenge.  More on that in a later post. :)

Remember this?

Yes, that's "my" desk.

It's actually an old banquet table covered in fabrics (that I never got around to hemming because I really haven't loved them from the get go).  The beauty of using an old banquet table as a desk is that it's an awesome size workspace, has abundant storage underneath, and it's something I already have.

Here's the desk I really WANT:

*Sigh*

But with one teen headed to college this fall, it's just not in the budget.  So... banquet table it is! 

I decided to change out the fabrics to something fresher against my beloved purple walls (read about how I arrived at the wall color - and why I'll never change it-- HERE).  But I'm going to use the fabrics a little differently, too.

I made the crazy decision to PAINT the top of my banquet table and create a tailored skirt around the base to conceal the necessary storage underneath.  Now, I have no idea what I'm doing here, so this completely an "in progress" peek. :-)

Love the size of the workspace but the visual just won't do!  I sanded the top lightly to even out the surface -- there are a few nicks and there was glitter from when we used this as an art table in the playroom.  I also HAD to vacuum underneath. :)

My secret for keeping my brush moist in between coats {this even works overnight}.

Here she is with a nice coat of Kilz.  I ended up doing two coats for good measure.

See that quart of paint (straight out of our paint cabinet in the garage)?  Porter Paint's Velvet White is a creamy white and the trim throughout our house is this color.  I figured, why not?

Crisply painted surface (two coats!). Ahhhh...

Then I decided this little old bookcase from my college days needed some paint, too.

Last night I put a coat of poly on both.  May put another on today, just to be safe. These need to be workhorse surfaces after all!

While this project is turning out to be more daunting than I'd imagined, it's amazing what you can accomplish when you're off work and the hubby is out of town. :)  More next week... in the meantime, what projects are you working on these days?

Happy Decorating!