splurge, spend, steal

Hello Everyone! Sandy really roughed me up - downed trees, 

flooding & we won't get our power back until Monday!

I took a different route on this weeks splurge, spend, steal and focused on a piece of furniture I've loved from afar, Blu Dot's strut desk. It's usually priced around $1,200, but is currently half off. Half off and still about 3 times the amount I'm willing to  spend on a desk.

As you can see I've provided some more affordable options, but I thought I'd include a little mini-tutorial on how to use high end pieces as inspiration for home design.

{if you have a specific look for your home or closet you'd like to recreate 

within budget, shoot me an email and we can set up a consultation}

The first thing I looked as it what makes me love this desk, mostly the color but also the sleek and spacious work top. I feel like it's just too easy to fallback on the old desk standby, the parsons desk. Parsons are great and there are tons of affordable options, but I wanted something special. Even if it was only the little details that make it special.

Since I knew color was a big factor behind my love, I actually lucked out because that is the easiest thing to fix. {see below for tips on painting furniture}.

Beyond the color, replicating the look of the strut desk meant I needed a fairly large work top with sleek legs and no extras - drawers, knobs, etc. The front cross beams create a truly unique look, so I focused on finding desks that had 1 small details that made them stand out.

The front profile & modern legs of the IKEA desk are great, but what I really loved was the super high gloss finish. In this case I would not recommend painting this because you may compromise the loss. IKEA has many colors in this desk available too, so painting is probably not required.

The CB@ option also comes in quite a few colors {some bright ones too!} so only paint if you absolutely have to have the pink.  I found the wheeled legs to be a beautiful & unexpected detail that makes it really stand out from other similarly shaped options. 

So let's get serious, the pink is to die for. So if you decide to paint, please consider what material you are painting. Materials just as MDF and veneered surfaces are quite difficult to paint & are less durable because you cannot sand the surface beforehand. If it's wood then I say give it a light sand and have at it. 

The Paint - I think spray paint is the best way to get a clean, glossy finish. There are so many options out there too. But please read the directions on the can even if you've sprayed before. You really do not want smudged and/or drips. Even if you choose regular paint {wall paint, not artist paint} I would still recommend a spray on application. 

Since I am the queen of spray painting things I am happy to answer any questions or help in anyway. But I should worn you, once you spray paint something you will realize you can breathe new life into almost anything, you may get hooked!

Super Crafty Tip: For those of you really willing to put the effort into customizing you very own strut-ish desk try buying a table top from IKEA and legs {I would use the Vika Lerberg or Vika Mouden} and paint it a custom color. This will give you complete control over the look and would only cost about $60 all in!

Happy Hump Day!