I Rebuilt My Lap Desk from the Ground Up

If, you know, the "ground" consists of plywood and a pillow form...

This particular lap desk is surely at least a decade old, and I know for a fact that when I bought it a decade ago, I bought it from a yard sale, and because I also know myself I'm also taking it as near-enough to a fact that I wouldn't have paid more than a quarter for it.

It used to be grey on top, with a grey fabric pillow underneath. Over the last year, though, that grey top started to peel away from the plywood base, and the fabric holding the pillow also began to peel away. When I finally got fed up with it I helped it all along until I ended up with this!

That's a plain plywood top, and somewhere off-camera, probably on the floor, is a plain pillow form.

Just as basic as I am!

Speaking of basic, how long has it been since I've decoupaged comic book pages all over something?

The answer, ALWAYS, is "Too long!"

That photo above represents the exact moment that, looking through the camera lens, I realized that I was decoupaging the comic book pages upside-down.

Eh, whatever. I'm not covering up that Dr. McCoy pic!

I used a 1:1 solution of Elmer's white glue/water to decoupage the comic book pages to the plywood desk top, but when it was completed and dry, I painted on a LOT of coats of water-based polyurethane sealant.

Like, a LOT of coats. I don't want to find myself rebuilding this lap desk again within the next decade!

I don't have a picture of the process of putting the pillow form back on, and covering it with new fabric, because just to get that job done I needed about fourteen more hands than I actually had. I'm pretty stoked about the fabric that I used, though--it's a little more of that beautiful batik on canvas that used to be our bedroom curtains back in our old house.

There's a LOT to be said for being a hoarder!

Lacking any other elegant solutions in my mind, I simply hot glued the snot out of it. That part might need to be rebuilt within the next decade, but fortunately, hot glue is cheap.

And now I LOVE my new-again lap desk!



I think it looks quite fine on top of my Star Wars quilt, and it holds a book and a glass of wine handily:

P.S. Here's how we built our headboard, which is just about the only other interesting thing in our bedroom.