As you might know, I make my living as a graphic designer with a small publishing company making homeschool products as well as music related products and my daughter sells rock and mineral kits for kids as well. So I spend a good deal of my day here at my desk, working at my computer and running the family business.

I absolutely love my desk. It’s an old drafting table from the 1930’s and it’s a perfect size for me. I like the deepness of the table top, so that I can have my pair of gerbils, Lester and Earl on my desk to keep me company and still have room to work. And with my large monitor, it keeps all the cords and external drives and other computer stuff tucked behind it and out of sight in the back corner of the desk. The drawers are super long and deep as well and can hold everything I need for day to day work close, but out of sight. I like a uncluttered area to work in. I just want a few of my “things” around me so that I can focus on what needs to be done.

However… what I do not like is the top!

It’s this white, nasty plastic stuff that is often on drafting tables. This stuff is old, probably close to the age of the table! It’s ripply and cut up and has marker stains on it and all, yes, character but it’s just getting to me. Partially because it’s not very nice to write on. Your pen tends to smoosh through the paper and all. And I can’t use a mouse properly because the pad is too ripply. I actually had to keep a little journal book under the mouse pad!

Well, I got to thinking… why am I putting up with this? It’s been years! Don’t ask me why we get into these situations where we really should have adjusted something that was a burr under our saddle, and we don’t! I suppose this is why some people stay married and perhaps shouldn’t be! Haha…

This burr has been rubbing me the wrong way for way too long and I decided that today was the day. Tim was due in a bit and we were heading to Lowes for a few things and I planned to find me a new surface and fix this situation.

I had pulled off the ucky white drafting surface and found a wood board underneath. Of course covered in years of this sticky gooey stuff. For a few seconds I considered stripping and staining it, but then I realized it was a very thin plywood veneer and to be honest, all chipped, cut and gouged. No thanks. I have time but not that much time. And even if I did strip and sand it, the cuts and gouges would be a problem in the thin veneer. Now if it had been the same old oak that the rest of the table is made of, I might have given it a few more minutes thought.

I had in my mind to get a piece of countertop laminate. But when I realized that it was $48 a sheet, well, that changed my mind pretty quick. $48 bucks was a little pricy. Just seemed overkill. I thought about wood Pergo flooring and then Tim said why not floor tiles and we were off. It’s so good to have a like-minded partner in crime with these Moby upgrades! Very often we ping off each other and he can balance off my quirky ideas and make them actually work.

I was going to go with a wood grain, but the grain was a little deep in the tile. I wanted something a little smoother. And to be honest, it would be hard to match the table legs and all, with the floor tile and I already have two colors of wood in my room. My bedroom furniture is all a sort of pecan-cherry, reddish color and the table is more oak. Adding a third possible color seemed that it might clash a bit. So then I saw this dark brown and reddish brown fake stone tile and it just shouted out “take me” and I got my 12 tiles and we were off to the garden department for other needs.

Since the top was already sticky, I just left it be. It was smooth, nothing funky stuck to it or anything like that. Simple, just peel, line up with the edge and press down.

My goodness, I love it! It’s nice and a hard surface, no more squishy plastic! I believe I might get a little dark brown poly-caulk sealer for the little cracks so they are less noticeable. The edges are a little grey and divot in a bit. I’ve seen small amounts at the craft store before, for mosaic projects. I think that would work perfect and give me years of work. And I love how it works in my room/office. It blends in so much nicer than the dirty white huge surface of before. Almost reduces the “size” of the desk a bit. What a great fix for less than $10! It’s so nice to see that these floor tiles are really getting very nice and realistic. The detail of the imprinted surface is so high resolution that you really have to stare close to see any dotted images. And the variation between the tiles is awesome, of the 12 tiles I got, only two match! So you are able to mix and turn them for a very unique and natural look.

We have an old big work table in our living room as our dining room/kitchen/shipping table and it’s pretty rough. I’m thinking that a piece of solid hard vinyl flooring might really give that a new life! It take a lot of abuse and it’s no antique worth refinishing… actually it’s two old bank desks that we screwed together to make this huge big work surface. If I catch site of a remnant that looks nice and fits some day… it might just come home!!