Faith, Hope and Art: A 30 minute Drab to Fab project to complete with your teen!

Monday, July 1, 2013

A 30 minute Drab to Fab project to complete with your teen!

Maddie has wanted to repaint the top of this desk for a while. It is boring and blah! But ugh... painting makes messes and it's hot outside! So, I came up with a cool solution. Even better, a solution we were both happy with.

We went from Drab to FAB in under 30 minutes and it only cost $10 and no messes!!

Before you begin, you need to measure your table top. Maddie's desk was the perfect size for one yard of fabric.

We got a yard of fabric in the pattern of her choice. Cause really who cares... it's one yard of fabric and I can easily remove it in a couple of years when we want to change colors or kids. Okay, maybe we will keep the kids. You also need a roll of iron-on fabric adhesive. It's a $7 investment at the store and you will have leftovers. Save the leftovers as you can piece this stuff and nobody would know!

Iron the adhesive on. Follow the directions on the packaging. We had cotton fabric, so we used the cotton setting on the iron. Unroll the adhesive right up next to the edge of the fabric. If you have overlap, you can pull it off.

Iron down the adhesive. We used the desktop as the ironing board. Way easier! Lots more space to work. We put a towel between the fabric and the desk and when we finished a section, we would move the towel down the desk to give the area we just ironed a chance to cool.

Once the entire yard of fabric has adhesive, peel the backing off.

Now flip the fabric over so that it is shiny adhesive side down and check the sides to make sure that all ends are covered.

Start ironing down the material on the side with the least overlap. This makes sure that you don't end up with one end short and showing the original desk. I went ahead and ironed the underside of the short side while I was there. However, leave the corners for later!

Once you have the one side ironed down move to the top of the desk. I like to start at the end that I just ironed and move across the top of the desk at an angle. Pull the fabric taut as you iron. If you end up with a wrinkle or bubble, just yank it up, smooth it out and iron it back down!

One the top is ironed down completely finish ironing the rest of the edges. Make sure to give the fabric and tug and hold in place as you iron the edge and underside. You don't want a lumpy looking side. (Maybe that's my problem... hmmm. if only I could give my skin around my middle a tug and iron it down....)

Once the edges are ironed in place, go back and finish the corner. I think these corners are called hospital corners. Or maybe you know it as how you make the corners when wrapping a present.

The last step is trimming the underside and making sure that all the ends are ironed well. If you have a spot that doesn't adhere well, just tear a piece of the adhesive off and iron it to the fabric, peel the backer off and iron it to the desk!