Southern Mom Adventures: DIY Decoupage world map desk

Hi Friends! Today's post is an exciting one for me! I find this little antique desk for a steal. Came home cleaned it up. First, I replaced the back of the desk because it was worn out. I cut a new plywood for the back.

Lightly sanded it, prime and painted it a very light blue. Once I painted, I knew I wanted to do a world map on top. I already had a map paper. As you can see in the picture below.

Sadly, once I started to Mod Podge it, it ripped. Failed!! So, back to cleaning up the top desk again. This time at Joann's Fabric I picked up a World map for project crafts. This paper is thick and i had No issues.

I cut the map to it's size. Using a sponge foam brush to mod podge the desk then, quickly smoothed it out..
Slowly, working around the edges was tricky. Once map was done I did 4 coats of minwax polycrylic.

Last was to work on the handles. I really wanted to order suitcase handles but the cost was out of my budget. Came up with an idea to use Leather for it. I found tons of scrap leather at Michael's using a coupon it came to less than $8.00. Used a ruler to cut out strips then I punched holes with a leather punch. Had to let hubby do this part since I couldn't punch the hole through.

Once we punched the holes on all leather strips, Hubby got out the roller and tied a rubber band around the leather pieces around to form them. We left it overnight.