DIY Spooky "Dead and Breakfast" Lap Desk ⋆ Welcome to the Necro Nomnomnomicon

I’m gonna be 100% honest whe I say, at my core I’m a lazy bastard, so any project that ultimately makes my leisure time more comfortable is worth the effort it takes to make it. Case in point, this upcycled spooky dead and breakfast lap desk made from an old picture frame and a memory foam pillow.

While this project does have some steps that require a bit of technical know-how including sewing, mold making and casting resin, these are optional steps and can easily be replaced with less technical options and still allow you to end up with a polished and professional looking final project.

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For this project you will need:

1 old picture frame
1 pillow roughly the same size as your picture frame
Plywood
Black spray paint
Black pillowcase
Zipper
Black thread
Industrial velcro
Spray glue
Graphic
Clean and dry chicken bone approximately 5″ long
Silicone mold putty
10-minute casting resin
Pour on high gloss resin finish
Mixing cups for resin
Popsicle sticks for mixing the resin
2 drawer pulls with included hardware
Small paint brush
Brown acrylic paint
Clear matte spray paint
Painter’s tape
Heat gun
Drill
E6000 glue
4 plastic Halloween bats (Personally I like these guys!)
Silver rub and buff wax

Let’s start with the basic foundation of this project, the frame, and the pillow. When looking for supplies for this project, I tried to keep in mind that I wanted the pillow to fully cover my lap and for the frame to be roughly the same size as the pillow while also being big enough to hold anything I might want it to hold (including my laptop). I also tried to find a frame with an interesting design on it. Luckily, I managed to snag both at my local thrift store for less than $10 for the two together.

While not impressed with my choice in artwork, Lucifur has clearly decided the pillow is actually for her.

Now before anyone gets weirded out about the idea of using a thrift store pillow, there are some easy steps you can take to make sure it’s clean and cootie free. I found this tutorial online that covers both foam pillows (like the one I snagged) as well as feather and synthetic stuffed pillows.

The first thing we’ll want to do is focus on our frame. Flip your frame over and carefully remove the backing, glass and any images that might be inside. I also had to remove the two screws and the hanging wire that was attached to mine.

Once your frame is completely empty, use your measuring tape to measure out how large the interior space is. A quick and easy way to do this is to just measure the size of the glass that was in the frame. This is the size you’ll have to cut your plywood to.

Once your plywood is cut, take it and your frame outside and give them both a few good coats of black spray paint.

When they’re dry, pop the plywood into your frame and lock it into place. I like to make sure my plywood is really solidly attached to my frame by running a thin bead of E6000 glue around the edge of the frame and gluing the plywood into place.

While those dry, let’s focus on making a removable cover for our pillow. Take your pillowcase and trim it down so it’s roughly 2 inches longer than your actual pillow (as you can see, my pillowcase was HUGE! While I should have gotten the standard sized pillowcase, I grabbed a package of king pillow cases because they were on sale. You could easily get away with a smaller size.)

Cut off your excess fabric.

Using your sewing machine, hem the raw edges of your fabric and sew in your zipper, creating a somewhat tight fitting pillow case for your pillow.

But what if I can’t sew??? What if I don’t want to sew? How do I install a zipper? Why is this so haaard??

Okay, let’s do a quick workaround for zipper installation, which I admit, can be a bit challenging if you’re not used to doing them.

You can easily get around the whole “install a zipper” step by simply using iron-on hem tape and velcro tape which they sell at the local craft store. Hem your raw edges using your hem tape and an iron. Once the tape is cool and your edges are hemmed, install your velcro. Easy peasy and looks just as good.

Once your pillow is covered, attach your industrial velcro, hook side up, like this:

Either sew your velcro strips down or attach with fabric adhesive.

Now let’s work on your bone handles, beginning with molding your chicken bones.

To do this step, make sure either you’re using resin or plastic bones (there should be plenty popping up in the local craft stores as we get closer to Halloween), or if you are opting to use actual chicken bones, make sure they’re clean and dry. Regardless of the type of bone you’re using, make sure it’s at least 1/2 of an inch longer than your drawer pulls on both sides (so if your drawer pull is 4″ long, you’ll need a 5″ bone.)

Mix your two-part molding putty together and wrap it around your bone, covering it lengthwise and leaving an open strip along the top that is wide and long enough for your drawer pull.

Once your putty has cured, remove your bone, mix up your two-part resin, and fill your mold. I’m using a quick kicking 10-minute resin for 2 reasons:

Because I’m impatient and 10 minutes is about as long as I can stand to wait for this project.
It’s white when it cures, which makes painting the bones a lot easier.

While your resin is still liquid, gently press your drawer pull into the center of your mold. You may have to hold it in place while it cures. The idea is to have it in the center of the mold and completely surrounded by resin. If you press it down too far, you run the risk of hitting the bottom of the mold, resulting in your ability to see the drawer pull through the resin. Push down too shallow and you won’t get enough resin around the pull to really lock it in place and it can result in a weaker pull. Right in the middle is the sweet spot.

Once the resin “kicks” (that’s slang for starts to chemically react and solidify) you should be able to let go of the pull and it should stay in place. Let your resin fully cure for about 10-15 minutes, remove from the mold, and let continue to cure for another 30 minutes or so. Use this time to cast your second bone drawer pull.

When both your drawer pulls are molded, let’s paint them! While they’re already white, I like adding a light brown wash of acrylic to help add some realism to them.

Simply dot on some brown paint, use your brush to completely cover the bone, and then go over it again, this time with a clean brush loaded with clean water. You’ll wash off most of the brown, but it should stick around in the deep crevasses and dimples.

When you’re done, you should have two fairly realistic looking bone drawer pulls.

Give both your bone pulls as well as your frame a coat or two of clear matte sealer to help protect them.

But what if I can’t mold and pour resin??? What if I don’t want to use all these chemicals? Why is this so haaard??

*Sigh.*

Fine. You can also skip this step and either just use plain pulls or, if you want to have a bone but don’t want to cast it, grab two hollow plastic ones. Carefully slice them open, creating a space large enough for your drawer pulls, and glue into place using quick epoxy glue.

Now that you’ve got your pillow covered, your frame painted and your bone drawer pulls, let’s focus on the graphic you’re going to decorate your desk with!

I made this one on my computer using Photoshop and had it printed out at the local copy shop as a 11X17″ graphic on midweight paper.

You’re free to use this graphic if you want (available in my Etsy shop!) or create your own. If you decide to make your own and are looking for great clip art or ideas, check out the amazing Graphics Fairy!

Print out your graphic and make sure it’s sized to fit properly within your frame.

Spray the back of your graphic with a generous coat of spray glue and carefully place onto your plywood. Allow to dry for at least an hour.

While your glue is drying, let’s seal the back of your frame in preparation for doing the resin sealer. Flip your frame over and use your painter’s tape to tape over all the seams between the frame and the plywood. Pay close attention to the corners as well. Be generous with your tape and extend your tape barrier at least an inch out from all the seams.

Resin sealer is sneaky stuff and will ooze out of even the tiniest holes, and trust me when I say it’s much easier to spend the extra time it takes to make sure your tape job is good than the time it takes to clean up resin that has oozed out all over everything.

Mix up your resin according to the manufacturer’s directions…and in the case of the clear coat resin, it’s always a good idea to mix up more than you think you need. In order to cover this project with a good coat about 1/4″ thick, I ended up using almost 300g of resin which was actually twice as much as I had mentally guessed I would need. Always err on the side of having too much, rather than too little.

Pour your resin over the entire front of your frame, making sure to fully cover your graphic. Don’t worry about bubbles…there will be lots of those…I’ll help you get rid of those in a minute.

Either tilt your frame back and forth to fully coat your graphic in resin or use a flat piece of cardboard to spread it evenly across the surface of your graphic.

To help get rid of any bubbles as well as to assist in smoothing out the resin, go over it with your heat gun set on high. Make sure your passes over the wet resin are smooth and fairly quick. The idea is to heat the resin so the bubbles rise and pop, not boil it. Be careful.

Once all the bubbles are popped and the resin is smooth, step back and look at your project carefully, keeping a sharp eye out for any lint or fuzzies that may have fallen into your liquid resin.

Use either a small pin or a toothpick to fish these stray bits of nothing out of your wet resin. If you wait too long and it hardens, they’ll be embedded forever, so it’s good to be a bit obsessive about this as soon as you’re done pouring your resin.

Carefully cover your project and allow to cure for at least 12 hours…and up to 24 hours. An easy way to make sure your resin is fully protected is to place a cup that is higher than your frame in each corner and rest a large piece of material overtop it. In this photo, I’m using foam board but you could just as easily use cardboard. The idea is to keep any airborne particulates from drifting over your wet resin and falling in.

When your resin is dry and fully cured, flip it over and admire how gorgeously glossy it looks! But wait, we’re not done yet!

Using your drill, carefully drill holes for the hardware of your bone drawer pull handles and install on either side of your frame.

Now is also the time to attach the loop side of your velcro to your frame in the same pattern you used to attach the hook side to your pillow. Press the two together and make sure they line up properly.

Using a generous amount of E6000, attach a plastic bat to each corner of your frame and allow to dry.

Once all your glue is dry, your resin is all cured, and you’re ready to burst from the excitement of using your tray, give it one last touch of class by going lightly over it with some silver rub and buff wax.

Finally…you’re done!

Look at how gorgeous that thing is!