Old school desk...sure...why not?

My aunt emailed me the other day stating that she had an old school desk that my grandfather (who passed away) had given to my cousins and now they have out grown it.  So she asked me if I wanted to have it for the girls.  I loved the idea of a little project (like I don't have enough going on!) so I said SURE! 

My uncle warned me that it needed a little makeover...he wasn't kidding...

That didn't scare me since I read so many blogs and knew what a little spray paint could do.  So i bought a can of primer and two cans of aqua spraypaint from Michaels.  My dad offered (or I just told him it needed to live in his barn for a little while until I finished it!) to pick it up and bring it home.  For those of you who don't know my dad...HE HAS EVERYTHING YOU COULD EVER NEED in his barn.  He had a belt sander, 5 different grades of sandpaper, random paper to cover the wooden parts for when I painted, a mask, goggles, you name it!  So I got to work while my mom took care of the girls.  I sanded, covered the wood in paper, primed, painted and glued.

This was after primer and one coat of aqua spraypaint.  It may look crazy in the background...but I swear my dad's barn is amazingly organized and has EVERYTHING!  I should do a post about him and his barn someday....

And here is the almost finished product!

We filled in some cracked wood on the top (it was drying here) and then I still need to put a few coats of poly on it to make the wood pop (yes, my dad even has the poly and brushes in his barn!). 

Great, right?  We plan on giving it to Olivia for her 4th birthday in September.  Hopefully we'll have a house to move it into by then!

I must thank my aunt and uncle (and my Grandfather!) for the desk, my mom for watching the girls, and my dad for have everything I needed to do this project!

UPDATE:
Here's the finished product!  I decided to do 2 coats of dark walnut stain.  I was going to leave it natural with only poly but realized that there will not be one thing in my house with that wood color that light.  So two coats of stain and two coats of poly later...we have a finished product.  Thanks to my mom for putting on the last coat of poly:) 

 

We gave it to Liv yesterday and she loves it!