"Ron Short" wrote in
oups.com:

I'm finally ready to start making my daughter's desk, she's 8 and is
going to "help". She stated this week that she wanted it painted white.
I already bought all the maple and it seems a shame to cover it up with
paint. I was thinking about making it out of poplar now since it's
going to be painted. My question is do I make it out of maple anyway
since it will be much more durable or go with poplar to save money. Of
course you can't answer this for me but I'm curious what you think you
would do.

This is a small student's desk that I hope my daughter uses until
college. She lives with me part time so it wont get a whole lot of
abuse. She'll have a computer on it and maybe do some homework there.

Also, what kind of paint would be good. Would a standard enamel wall
paint be Ok or something else.


I don't know if you are using hard maple or soft maple, or if it has any
figure. If it's soft maple, I'd use it (almost the same price as poplar
here). It it's hard maple, I'd toss a coin. If it's maple with any
figure, I'd save it for another project.

A while back I made a little box out of scrap walnut and maple with and for
my 6yr old son. He insisted that we paint it with a schoolbus yellow
lacquer. Kind of killed me at the time to paint over it, but in retrospect
I'm glad I did because now it's "his" project and it is prized by him.

I bet it will mean a lot to your daughter if you let her make the design
calls.