More Creative Re-Purposing

Desk-turned-sideboard.

Getting remarried (as I did in 2003) means combining [disparate] home goods. Didn’t really end up with a complete dining room set, so out came the paint brush and a few tools, and the table legs, mismatched chairs, a small new unfinished-wood liquor cabinet all got painted and distressed in a soft black for a not-at-all-formal dining area. But I still needed a sideboard of some kind for more storage.

I really hate it that furniture costs as much as it does, and I hated that I had an old desk hanging around with no place to live besides the garage. These two factors caused me to re-purpose that desk into a new sideboard. I’m no master carpenter or anything, but it turned out to be very useful, and not too bad looking!

It had a black formica-type top, so <check>, that was in the general color scheme. It had three drawers on one side including a fairly deep file drawer – <check> good for storage. A shallow drawer on the side where one’s chair goes – <check>, but that part of the desk was open – no back or side. Okay, so that had to be enclosed.

I used plywood panels to enclose the opening, covering the spindle-style legs. I added wood strip runners inside the new enclosure so that shelves could be installed and screwed into place. I raised the whole thing onto rounded feet for a little more height, added some fluted wood molding to the front sides to fill it out, and narrow molding around the formica top. More of the same soft black paint, new hardware, and now it houses my flatware, bone china, and collection of autumn-themed stoneware. New life for an old piece that I had when I was a kid!