The Colors of the Rainbow

Thursday, August 5, 2010

The Colors of the Rainbow

Happy Thursday! I hope everyone is staying nice and cool. I think we are headed to the BIG pool today. :)

I have Son #1's desk to share with you today. We are so happy with the end result and hope you enjoy it, too!

I bought this desk at a garage sale for $20, I think, 2 years ago. Here is my then 4 year old son right after we bought it. It was made by a dad probably 20 years ago for his kids. It was actually nice as is, but it needed a bit change for my boy's room.

Have any of you read The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch? Another good book I read earlier this year.

"Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, diagnosed with terminal cancer... The Last Lecture—“Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”—wasn’t about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because “time is all you have…and you may find one day that you have less than you think”). It was a summation of everything Randy had come to believe. It was about living.

In this book, Randy Pausch has combined the humor, inspiration and intelligence that made his lecture such a phenomenon and given it an indelible form. It is a book that will be shared for generations to come."

"In his talk, Randy encouraged parents to allow their children to paint on their bedroom walls. “As

a favor to me,” he said, “let ’em do it. Don’t worry about the home’s resale value.” The real message

he says he was trying to give was this: Find ways to help your kids be creative. Nurture those

instincts in them."

If I remember right, Randy's parents let him have free reign over painting whatever he liked on his walls. With help from his friends, he painted mathematical equations, a pretend elevator and much more "fun stuff".

With planning my sons' rooms, I try to have them input their ideas on what they would like. As for the bed, I imagined it being a pretty red, black or cream...but my son chose blue and that's what I painted it and you know what? It turned out great! It was the same with this desk project. I asked my son what he would like his desk painted and he wanted BLUE again. This boy LOVES blue. I must admit, I cringed at the idea of having all this blue in one room. LOL Would it be too much? How about red, black or cream?...I was thinking in my head. LOL And then the idea came up with having the drawers all different colors. Oh boy, this could get interesting...So with Randy's message in my head "Find ways to help your kids be creative. Nurture those instincts in them."...a blue desk with every color of the rainbow drawers project was coming up! And I'm so glad I listened to my son because we all love it.

Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple...Black, White, Brown

I sprayed painted the old brassy knobs, silver. Then we added metal label holders. I got these at Hobby Lobby in the scrapbooking section. They were $2.99 regular price for a package of 6 (3 different sizes). Don't forget to use their 40% coupon they usually have in the newspaper or website weekly!

I used the same blue from the bed project but added a little black paint to it to add a little more contrast against the blue walls. I sanded the edges and then added some glaze...I usually like to use stain but I did this whole project in my son's room, I didn't want to stink him out of there. Plus glaze dries very quickly!

I also used MinWax wax paste to add a little protection. It made it nice and smoooooooth.

Before the makeover, my son taped pieces of paper to each drawer with his own labels on each drawer. We compromised on the metal label holders. He liked the computer print outs a lot. I was so happy to see him so excited!