Princess Desk Makeover

 

Ever since I did my snake coffee table I've been on the lookout for another piece of furniture to make over.

More after the jump...

I stumbled upon this girly little desk at (where else but) Goodwill. It's from the sort of pristine bedroom set the Tiffanys and Christinas of my childhood had.

Here it is close up. It was pretty banged up. The legs had some sizable chips and the hardware was rattling round in the drawers. Whatever. For ten bucks you get what you get.

First things first: I had to sand the top layer of finish off. 

I did this project back in July and, in an attempt to avoid the oppressive summer heat, I decided to sand it in my studio. This was a mistake. A thin layer of possibly toxic grit covered everything in that room for weeks. I wore a painter's mask while sanding but I probably did damage to my lungs anyway. Yikes. I didn't even sand it down to the bare wood.

I had several paint samples left over from when I first moved in so I mixed a few blues together to get the main color because I'm lazy and didn't want to go to Home Depot.

It took two coats to get a uniform color with sanding in between (pictured)...which I did indoors...again. 

I did the bits that were originally gold in a dove gray and allowed each coat to dry about 8 hours before sanding and repainting.

 

Finally, I did two coats of my trusty water-based polycrylic to protect the paint.

The result: A nice little blue desk for my bedroom. 

 

I snagged a retro metal desk lamp on the same day I got the desk. I hung a vintage map of Chicago (courtesy of the Kane County flea) and a couple of my cross stitch projects to round the area out.

 

I originally planned on getting some sweet new hardware from Anthropologie but the original handles ended up looking more than acceptable with the new paint. Also, the price of Anthro hardware is absurd.

  Night cat approves of the desk. 

 

Your Sister in Craft,

LB