p's office

In February I shared how I painted a desk that had a beat up plastic laminate finish. The desk I scored for free on craigslist and a couple coats of paint turned it from drab to looking fresh again. Because P's old chair was broken and wobbly we checked out the Design Within Reach Outlet that is close to where we live and found this Series 7 chair. It was marked down quite a bit and they also had a 20% off sale that weekend. P had a gift certificate as well he ended up spending only about $50 on the chair. And the chartreuse color looks great in combination with the grey of the desk. Now you can also see where the framed pucks hang. It's so great that each of us has a room for ourselves, it's a solution that works for now. Who knows what we might need the space for in the future. 

You know both of our work areas now, I already showed my desk a while back. What does your desk/work area look like? Would you mind sharing them with me? If anybody would be up for it you could send me a picture and a description about what you like/don't like about it and I would turn it into a post. It would be fun to see where you sit while blogging...

Happy three day weekend everybody!

 

p's new desk

Now that my office is making progress we started working on P's working area as well. 

The desk I found on craigslist for free sometime in the summer and it was sitting in our kitchen for the longest time waiting for us to be moved somewhere more convenient. From the picture on craigslist you couldn't tell if it was real wood or just plastic laminate and the lady who gave it away didn't know. It turned out to be plastic laminate but I still liked the lines of the desk as well as the skinny legs and the hardware. Since the laminate was beat up in so many places I decided to paint the desk. I had seen RustOleum countertop paint for plastic laminate countertops at Home Depot and thought I could give it a try. P chose the color pewter and I started painting it. The paint has a pretty strong odor and is super sticky but rolling it on was nice and easy. After a couple of coats I decided I was done and let it dry for a couple of days. In the meantime I spray painted the hardware black. I have to say I like the outcome (P does too) and only time will tell how good the paint will hold up. 

As you can see in the after shot more changes are afoot and I hope I can give you an update soon...

Happy hump day!

 

another curbside find

Last week on Thursday I went to see a play with a friend. After the play I took the bus home from NYC, which is not my usual route but the theater was close to the bus station. Walking home from the bus stop I found this chair. The cushions were missing which is not a big deal because they might have been yucky anyways. I think the chair will clean up nicely with a little bit of work and once I work on my sewing skills I can hopefully sew some box pillows for it.

My list of projects for 2012 is growing steadily and 2011 didn't even end yet...

workspace shopping

I got one step closer to getting an organized workspace when we stopped at Ikea on Sunday to pick up a drawer unit for all the small bits and pieces that were flying around on my desk. Also in my shopping cart were a new simple mouse pad and a new desk lamp because the old one couldn't be attached to my new desk, the one I found on the street back in August. I really liked the Aröd lamp but the whole lamp including the foot was way too big for my small desk so I decided to go with the Forså lamp.

1. desk found on the street 2. Aröd work lamp 3. Lågis mouse pad
4. Forså work lamp 5. Alex drawer unit

new (old) chairs

Another post for the category one man's trash is another man's treasure...

This chair and five other ones just like it were sitting on the side of the road on trash day across the street from our house a little over a week ago. First I took only one home but later thought having a pair would be nice. Even later that evening I went out again to snatch two more because you can never have too many chairs and four of a kind would even be better than a pair. Well already someone beat me to it and there was only one chair left. Boohoo! But I took the last one home and now I have three more projects sitting in the basement. Let's hope for a long & cold winter so I can hole myself up in the basement and finish everything...

Some parts of the wood frames took quite a beating in their lifetime and will have to be sanded and refinished. The seat cushion and backrest are upholstered with Vinyl, some have small holes in them. Also they are a bit smelly, they might have been sitting in somebody's basement for a while. A new fabric to replace the vinyl will also bring the chairs back to life.

As you can see in the last picture they have been made by Boling Chair Company in 1971, which makes them officially older than me ;)

monday, monday

So good to me...

I found this awesome desk on the street while walking from the subway to my office. First I tried to carry it by myself but that didn't work so I rushed to the office to make one of my coworkers help me. I got lucky and the desk was still on the curb when we got back.

I have been searching for a nice desk for myself on craigslist for a couple of weeks now and boom there it was on the side of the street. And for free!

While searching for a desk on craigslist I came across this Eero Saarinen Executive Chair and bought it. Will look nice once it will be reupholstered. Not so sure if I can tackle that as a diy project.

This is how it could look when finished.

via Knoll

chair

Found this chair in the ready for pick up garbage pile at my office today. I needed to rescue it from the lurking doom of ending on a landfill. Unfortunately the plywood armrest is cracked but I will think about how to fix it once I got the chair home. It's sitting behind my desk at the office for now. Will have to drag it onto the train with me on Friday...