One of my creative challenges in the new house was to finally create an office, a man cave for Mr. Thrifty. As many familiar with someone retiring from the military, it comes with a lot of memorabilia. To do it tastefully would be difficult at best. I have incorporated the most important items into this office. Many ideas are totally out of the box, but then again, that's the way I like it.
A desk or table was the first piece that needed to fill the space. I had been looking for a manly desk for quite a long time. Once I opened up the option of finding a table to work as a desk, the solution was much easier.
Recall the little white kitchen table.
This item was redone in a post about my white kitchen table, featured as: My up cycled Thrift Shop Kitchen Table. The white table was too shabby feminine to work in this space.
The white trestle table found a new life in the office. It was time to redo the table. Black was an obvious color and much better suited for the masculine room. The table was painted with two coats of flat black paint. Then it was top coated with a layer of clear wax and then buffed to a smooth surface. Something was missing.
The whole theme of the office was centered around West Point. Many homes of retired officers tend to go the patriotic theme route when creating their home offices. I wanted to do something different knowing that the school colors were black and gold. This was my key to coming up with a masculine yet attractive office.
Many of the degrees and military certificates have the same black and gold colors in their frames. The problem now was how to incorporate the gold details.
Believe it or not the auto repair store was my next stop. I knew that these stores sold adhesive striping to put on cars. The striping came in silver, white, black, red and gold. At the time, I did not know if the tape would stick to the surface of the black desk since I had waxed the piece after painting with a clear wax.
Once home, I took a rag and wiped down the surfaces I would be using to adhere the striping. In the future, if I ever use this striping product again, I will not wax the surface of the furniture.
I will tell you that this was a 2 man project. Mr. Thrifty had used this striping previously so he knew how carefully it needed to be placed onto the desk. You only get one chance to do it right since it wrinkles easily. With that in mind, the two of us successfully applied the striping to the table. It was the bit of embellishment that this desk needed.
I used gold paint on the rounded features on the base of the table.
The gold and black frames of the wall hangings blend in much better with the anchor piece of the room.
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