Ok, so there was an accident and this desk sort of landed out of thin air, right into friend's balcony thing. Actually it was an attack squirrel who just ran into our school and instead of stealing the teacher's nuts out of his desk draw. The squirrel just stole the whole thing. Actually it was aliens! Bigfoot?

Well the real story is not that exciting really, unfortunately. My old school had just bought some new furniture and they offered some of the old desk for free to anyone who wanted to come and collect them. And well, this little desk was surprisingly heavy for two women to carry a long, long way.

So by the time we got to her house, it sort of just fell over the wall. Thank goodness that old furniture really was well made. I got a desk too, but not as heavy thank goodness.

Anyway, we really want to have a go at upcycling this old teacher's school desk and are really looking for ideas. I have to say for mine I really like the idea of covering the whole thing in old ripped up fashion magazines. I want to study fashion design at college and thought that would be a really cool project. I think it's called decoupage. But I really don't know much more than that.

Can anyone offer any advice on how I could upcycle it? What do I need to do to prepare it for the decoupage treatment? A lot of sanding I'm guessing. How would I finish it in the end, I don't want all the magazines to just peel off. Can I even use glossy magazines for decoupage? I think I saw a table done before like this before and it was covered in like ripped paper from flower books. So like the actually paper from inside a book.

Any decoupage experts out there?

My friend just wants to paint hers. Which I think is a bit boring. I keep trying to get her to do something crazy, but she is not really that personality. Maybe she will surprise me and paint it in a crazy effect. I like that crackle paint, but is that a bit cheesy now-a-days?

Any advice on upcycling old school desks would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance
Mary