#131...sweet potato stamped desk

Another big project that I did for my client Sara's office was to makeover her dated desk and file cabinet, using some wood, paint and a sweet potato!

I cut the end off a sweet potato, gouged out the center with a melon baller and had an instant (and free) stamp for embellishing the desk. But I'm getting ahead of myself......here are the steps I took to update the desk and create a new, bigger work surface for Sara.

First, I measured the surface area of the desk and file cabinet, which we positioned so that it would be a corner work space. I cut a new desk top from plywood sheets using a table saw.

Next, I fitted my pieces on the top of the desk. (You can see I mis-measured and mis-cut the piece on the right on my first try). I also added the small front panel that is just to the left of the file cabinet to cover the corner hole where the two pieces of furniture meet.

 I painted the new desk top and desk base in a dark chocolate brown. Then it was time to stamp my sweet potato, which I simply rubbed in red paint and stamped and twisted it across my boards to give an effect like this.

I varnished the surface with Wipe-on Poly and simply placed the new top on the old one. Initially, I thought that I would somehow have to secure the new top to the desk, but the weight of the plywood top actually holds it in place without any need for attaching it.