The ugly desk

As a rule I would definitely consider myself an optimistic, glass half full kind of a girl. If I do have complaints with others I pretty much keep them to myself, but like most rules there are always exceptions. One of those exceptions is going to a store, and running into that one employee who really shouldn't have even got out of bed that morning. Well, I had an experience like that yesterday when...
Actually let me first go back to last Friday, when my daughter and I were browsing in one particular store. I won't give any names, but the name begins with Good, and ends with Will.
Anyway, my daughter spotted this ugly, worn-out , not even made out of real wood desk. After about a half hour of hearing please,please, please and I promise if you buy this for me I will never ask you for anything else as long as I live I finally caved, and purchased this pitiful looking piece of furniture. Well after standing in the pouring rain, and turning this desk in as many positions you could possibly imagine I came to the realization that this wasn't going to fit in my little Honda. The clerk handed me a piece of paper, and said if I signed it then they could hold it for me until I could find another way to get it home. Okay, so now I would have to depend on my "always to busy fishing and hunting husband " to pick it up. This might take a while.
Well a few days went by, and my husband had been working late every
night, so we still hadn't got the desk.
That afternoon I received a phone call from a very rude manager, who told me if I didn't pick up the desk ASAP then she would put it back on the sales floor for resale.She also said that she would not refund my money, because all sales are final there! Can you believe that?? Well, she and I exchanged words, and long story short Phillip picked up the desk that evening.
Okay, we'll now we have this item that my daughter couldn't go on living without. Here, ya wanna see it?

Told you it was pretty shabby, and not in a good way. Okay now we had to pretty this thing up somehow, so I decided on some decoupage. We pulled some scrapbook paper off the shelf, and went to work.

We decided to get a little crazy, even put her initial in the center. Here's the results, not too shabby!!!

A little goes a long way

Yay, I'm so glad you came back to visit!! Now I'm gonna have to keep up my end of the deal, so here goes it.
Okay, one of the great things about buying an older home is a lot of them have many built in features. Our house is no exception. We have several built in cabinets, shelves, and a built in oven. Now for some reason the previous owners decided to paint the built ins the same color as the wall. Although it doesn't look bad, it doesn't exactly showcase them either.
Thus bringing me to our subject.
Alright, so I have these awesome shelves that are basically camouflaged.Now that leaves me with two options, to either paint them white, or go with the new trend and wallpaper the back wall.
Well, I'm not a great painter, pretty sloppy really! On the other hand, I have never worked with wallpaper of any kind.(Unless ripping it down counts) Yeah, I didn't think so.
Okay,Okay I know you are ready to hear how I gave my shelves a makeover for one buck. Alrighty, I have to admit I do love the look of wallpaper backed shelves(Did I just invent a word?)That's how I came up with this idea. First off, let me show you what my shelves looked like before.(I apologize for how messy they were, but that was the day we moved in.)

See,I tried to warn ya! Now, the moment you've been waiting for...
I think I'll be different, and show you the pic before I give you the tutorial.
Ready, set, go

Whew, I hope that I redeemed myself with the after photo. Okay, now this is how I fixed my problem. You know when you come up with an idea that is so crazy, that it might actually work? Well, that's exactly what this was. I had in my head that I wanted polka dots, and since my shelves are a goldfish-beige color then the only color I could think of that would show up well would have to be white. I then started wondering if you could find those decal thingies in little white polka dots. I did a little searching, but came up empty handed. I then thought to myself, Stickers!!!!! Not just any stickers though. Yard Sale stickers, I'm sorry , translation needed for non-southerners. I mean Garage Sale!! You know those little white stickers you put on everything you want to sale for a quarter! Okay, the best part was that I found them in a pack of 300 at the Dollar Tree!!! Yes, I did my happy dance. Wouldn't you?
Ok, here's a pic of the yard sale stickers, just in case your one of those people that my husband says "Do not have a clue" (If you are don't feel bad, I'm right there with you)Tootles!!!

Nice to meet ya!

I am so glad you decided to check out my blog. Let me introduce myself. I am originally from Athens,Georgia
(Go Dawgs!)... Sorry, where was I? Right introducing myself. Okay, I married a man from Louisiana, and that is where we reside. I have three children, William 15, Lily 13, and Sadie 11...Oh, I nearly forgot about my fourth child, our four year old pickapoo named Bailey.
We recently bought a house in Athens, Louisiana(Ironic, right?)where I homeschool my kiddos. That's could be a whole blog in itself, but my main focus with Cottage 279 is going to be on our house, and all of its transformations. Which brings me to a confession. I eat,sleep and breath home decor! I guess you could classify me as Shabby-chic, because I love anything that's older than dirt. I collect old bottles, old picture frames, old windows... Oh, I recently discovered some old windows underneath our 1930 built cottage, and if I can salvage them from my totally opposite anti-antique appreciating husband(he wants to throw them in the burn pile), then I plan on making a coffee table for my "girls only" room. I'll explain that later.
Well, I have a lot of neat things I have already done to the cottage,
including an amazing makeover I gave my shelves for one dollar. You'll have to come visit my page later on to see the reveal.I have a lot of fun crafts, and might even divulge some recipes along the way, so I hope you'll keep up with me.
This is my first blog ever, so be patient with me.I promise to do better next time!!