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For Christmas my mom got me a sewing machine. Because I have no where to put it it has sat in the box it came in since Christmastime.
The whole point of the sewing machine is to help save us money so I didn't want to spend a lot on a work space. I also wanted something small enough that wouldn't take up too much space in our home that is getting more crowded everyday.
I decided that I can find something used and if I need to fix it up. There is so much good quality used furniture out there that just needs some TLC.
It is much more economically sound, and environmentally sound. Cheaper wood furniture is often made of particle board which can emit formaldehyde, a known carcinogenic. It also does not last as long as solid wood. The fact alone of buying new means more trees cut down.
It is not very hard to refinish a good quality piece of wood, the problem is to find one. Well it really isn't too much of problem if you know where to look. People are often too lazy to refinish something, or they just don't know how. So when their table or chairs are starting to look out of date or don't match their new style they often just want to get rid of their old stuff. People put great stuff on craigslist, or in yardsales, sometimes they don't even need any TLC. My mom got a beautiful dining room set off craigslist very cheap and it needed no work at all.
If you are really lucky you can even find stuff on freecycle.
Yard sales are great, especially if you can find town wide ones. That is where I found an old desk, according to the owner it was bought at a garage sale by his parents when he was a child. Its a perfect size for a sewing machine, with great nautical details,
dovetail joints and a very solid quality wood. As they say they just don't make them the way they used too.
Another great place to find pieces are during some towns "sparkle days" or week. Many towns will do bulk pick up once a year and you would be surprised what some people are just going to throw out.
There are tons of online resources on how to refinish furniture and with being able to borrow a sander from a friend the cost to us to make my desk beautiful will be minimal.
I am hoping to get started next week so keep an eye out for future posts of the progress of my desk/sewing machine table.
There was a bit of a learning curve to get the spray paint not streaky. But with my trusty stick and spinning it like a wheel, it got the job done. 
I ended up using 3 cans of spray paint.
They dried out in the sun on some broken up cardboard. 
The final product came out amazing.
They were a big hit, people were excited to take them and fought over the basil, note to self, next time just do basil.
Everyone loved them.
I just love that its a favor everyone can actually use.
