As part of my new blog design, I have added a “Submit Guest Post” feature at the top of my site. It offers readers the opportunity to submit an original DIY Project (as well as original recipes and frugal living posts.)
Jennifer Davenport shared her Trash to Treasure desk redo with me, and I knew you would love to see her twist on this old desk.
Her daughter needed a rather small desk, and they found a unique table with legs that were in terrible shape at a flea market. They also found some old staircase spindles and knew that would do the trick.
What I love with this DIY desk is how they thought outside the box. Stair spindles as new table legs? A perfect low cost solution. They finished the entire project in just an afternoon. That is my kind of DIY project!

List of Necessary Supplies:

  • Old flea market table top
  • Old staircase spindles
  • Screws
  • Hammer
  • saw
  • wood stain
  • Polyurethane

Here are the directions in her own words.
1. The table and staircase spindles were both a little dirty. So the first thing I did was wipe them down with a damp rag and a little bit of Murphy’s Soap.
2. My husband removed the old legs. We then measured the spindles to the appropriate height necessary, and attached them with screws.
3. Next, I sanded the top of the desk with fine grit sandpaper. They now have sanding blocks, which are awesome for us girls to use! They are much easier on our hands and nails! Using the fine grit sandpaper was just to smooth down the rough edges. When you are restoring and refinishing furniture you want to do a lot of sanding. But, when you are interested in keeping the unique changes in wood color due to time, then light sanding is best.
4. Because I am not the most patient person in the world, I love to use a poly-stain product. As the name explains, the product is mixed with polyurethane and wood stain. My absolute favorite product is by “Cabot”. This product dries super fast! The stain color I used is “dark oak stain”. Since the legs were a lot darker than the top of the table, I put three coats of Cabot on the table, and only one coat on the legs.
And that was all it took to make this desk look fantastic! If I can do it, anyone can.
Jennifer Davenport is an interior decorator and runs JD Designs.  She also owns a website dedicated to helping others create the home of their dreams.