It has been a long time since I have written any articles. I thought to get me back into the flow of writing and share a recent fun project that I completed at work, where I was able to reuse and re-purpose abandoned 20-year-old office desks. The issue started out as a frustration related to note-taking and I wanted something better. What is my frustration, how did it start? It was started by simple pet peeve of my own. I do not like using paper to jot down quick ideas, thoughts or a to-do on! I write numerous quick notes down during my day at work.
Some examples of my daily office dilemma:
- Rapid fire phone calls that can bounce my phone off the desk.
- I just have to jot something down less than a single sentence down.
- A conference call occurs I need to capture a couple quick thoughts down because I am such a great active listener and don’t want to interrupt.
- Even sketching out a quick design for a new CUBE HPC cluster or workstation.
My whys may not be your whys and I feel like it is a time & resource waste! You might too especially when I the thoughts go something like this.
Should I:
- Use a new piece of paper to write quick notes on? Nope
- Find the special square colored sticky things? Nope
- Dig through the paper recycling bin and get strange looks from my co-workers? Nope
- Cut my own square colored sticky note things? Nope
- I can’t seem to find a pen, open a brand new box of pens? Nope
- Take your notes on the electronic device of your choosing, okay which one phone, laptop, and/or tablet or how about use that conference room computer? Then I end up having quick notes and scribbles EVERYWHERE!
- Sigh…
I hope those points made you laugh and frames a picture that I was not in my comfort zone. I knew what I wanted. I had used the same note taking process for years. Probably every day I would use my two whiteboards to write quick notes on. Whiteboards worked for me, I loved my whiteboards and life was good. What happened and where the frustration occurred was that I had four office desk moves over a time span of a year at PADT, Inc. Guess what happened the new office areas did not have whiteboards in them!
Here is a picture of a bunch of abandoned desks here at PADT, Inc. I walk past desks like these every day. Then during the office moving a thought occurred to me that maybe I could use paste or mat whiteboard type surface to them and make a whiteboard type desk?
I did my research and this is what I used.
The primer & the solution:
- Two primers can be used under Dry Erase Paint; either Zinsser B-I-N Shellac Based Primer or Zinsser Bulls-Eye 1-2-3 Water-based Primer.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Zinsser-Bulls-Eye-1-2-3-1-gal-White-Water-Based-Interior-Exterior-Primer-and-Sealer-2001/100398391 - Rust-Oleum Dry Erase Kit
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Rust-Oleum-Specialty-27-oz-White-Gloss-Dry-Erase-Kit-241140/100670376
The cost:
- About $50 and a few hours of time
- One package of the dry erase can do about 3-4 coats for a 30 sq ft area, or about two thick coast on two desks.
The steps:
- Lightly sand the top until smooth.
- Clean the top of the desk.
- Mask the ends of the table
- Apply coat of primer
- Apply the solution
- After the third or fourth coat is on, wait 3 days for use.