5 Minute DIY: Deck Out Your Desk with Neon!
We’ve been having a bit of a friendly competition here at Brit HQ to deck out our desks in our new office. And you know that we had to have at least some neon in the mix! What makes this DIY even better? It could be one of the easiest ones we’ve done on the site, and it involves the new neon Sharpies, which we can’t get enough of!
Just by coloring the edges, you’ll give your acrylic desk accessories a bright neon glow.
And all the supplies you need are available at the office supply store. Let’s get started!
Materials:
– acrylic desk accessories (file tray, notepad holder, business card holder, pen organizer, 4-tiered organizer)
– neon Sharpies
– painter’s tape
– scissors
– rubbing alcohol swabs
Instructions:
1. Clean edges the acrylic pieces with the alcohol swabs. This step is technically optional, but if you’ve had them on your desk for awhile, they might be a bit dusty or have oils from your hands on them.
2. Color the exposed edges of each piece with the Sharpie color of your choosing. Be sure to color the bottom edges as well to increase the “glow.”
3. For any seams that show through on the sides (see the pen holder below), tape off the seams and color with the Sharpie.
4. Using a fresh rubbing alcohol swab clean up any mistakes.
We chose to do each accessory in a different color. They all worked really well, but the blue was the faintest of the five. It took a couple of coats, and had a really subtle finished look.
The “seams” on this organizer don’t go all the way through, so we taped them off to get straight lines. You can skip this step if you want, but we found it really increased the glow of this organizer.
Make sure the ink is dry before you remove the tape to avoid smudging it.
The finished organizers, seem to light up with their colors!
The yellow really pops on these file trays.
The blue was much more subdued. If you end up not liking the way one of the colors turns out, simply use a rubbing alcohol swab to remove the marker. It might take a little elbow grease, but it will all come off.
To make sure the color really stood out on this organizer, we colored the top and bottom of each swiveling tray. It has a great look when stacked all together.
This one might be our favorite! Just by coloring the top edge, the U-shaped cutout, and the bottom edge, the green really lit up this little piece.
What do you have on your desk? Is it time for a neon upgrade? Tell us in the comments!
