Made the edges nice and round


Then got out on the deck with two of our old chairs, some clamps, a drill and a jigsaw and got to work. I hadn't used a jigsaw in years and getting around the corners with the standard issue blade was hard work, but I got there in the end.


Then I ironed on a piece of melamime edging (for reference, this is located in the sheeting section of the hardware store - it took me a while to find it because no one in Lowes knew what it was).  Getting around the corners with the iron was really hard and the job looks a bit messy in those areas. Oh well. Once the machine's in there, you can't tell.


And voila! the finished product. I ended up putting the extra melamime from the hole underneath the machine, raising it up so it's almost level with the desk top.  I could have raised up the shelf by relocating the holes, but that would also have required cutting the back board down to size. 

Now all that's left is to raise up the whole desk a few inches. I tried installing some castors directly onto the feet of the desk, but no dice. My hardware store owning dad told me to get some scraps of timber (lumber) to put at the bottom, *then* put the castors on.  I'll do that later .

(Note, I should also give credit to my husband who set up the lower half of the desk while I messed around with the top of it).

Before - I'm not a fan of the traditional chandelier look, so I was looking for something more modern. (oh, and that's the new paint behind it)