My "new" secretary

I am so excited! I finally finished my secretary! You know, the one that has been sitting in my garage for weeks months. The worst part is that it has pretty much been done since March, all it needed was one last coat of paint and a good distressing. But I live in Houston and it gets hot, and I didn't want to paint it when it's that hot outside because I knew I'd be miserable and sweaty by the time it was done. So I procrastinated, and then procrastinated some more. I even considered waiting until the fall to finish it. Then last weekend I had a BRILLIANT idea. I thought to myself "why don't I just bring it inside to finish it?!"

The irony is that this idea was not brilliant, but totally obvious. I have no idea why it took me so long to think of it.

So, with this epiphany, I headed to Sears for a drop cloth. Less than a week later, I'm done! Here's the transformation, step by step:

Above is what it looked like before. By the way, I found this on Craigslist for $140. Gotta love a bargain!

Then I sanded the entire thing and taped off the glass. After that I totally cheated. I didn't know how to paint in all the tiny little crevices where the shelves are, so I just spray painted them. The shade of white was close enough to the paint I used on the rest of it, so it blends in perfectly and you'd never know I didn't work painstakingly in all those little crevices with a brush. Here's a close up:

Then of course, I primed:

And then (three months later) I took this bad boy inside for the final coat of paint and added a subtle distressing (sorry I forgot to take pictures of those steps). I'm really happy with the final product. What do you think?:

This project only cost me about $150 total because I used the leftover paint from our kitchen renovation (read about that here). I did have to buy a drop cloth and another roll of painter's tape because I ran out about half way through, but all in all, I think it was well worth the work, and a total bargain!

Hope you've enjoyed my most recent project!

-Jesse