Furniture re-dos Makeovers Projects

My childhood desk ‘s new life.

With all the furniture re-doing around here, the second daughter (Cori) was bound to want something for herself eventually. She finally said something (spurred on by my asking) and it was decided she’d like a desk.

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We searched Craigslist… missed out a few super cute ones, and finally found something. I bought it… and she changed her mind. Hrmphhh…. ok….

However, she then did something a bit surprising. She decided she wanted the desk in the garage. Now the desk in the garage was part of the furniture collection my parents purchased for me when I was a budding tween and it’s… well, the desk is in great shape, it is great quality and solid, I just think it’s ugly. I have actually always thought it was ugly. It has these weird orange flowers that I have never liked.

Of course, I forgot to take a before picture. However, I do have a before picture of the matching nightstand to give you an idea-

See? a little cute, and yet… ugly..

ok, so what do we do with it? Well, this girl has a wild streak. She LOVES animal print. The tackier and louder the better. She is full-on, throw-back to the 80’s. So I thought fabric would be the best place to start. So we headed over to the trusty internet and found some acceptable cheetah print (and super cute I might add) and ordered that.

It finally got here and I bought paint and then got busy. So it sat. Then about a week ago I got a wild hair and just started it. The cute little girl at my favorite antique store where I buy my paint had the brilliant idea of using spray paint under the regular paint to distress to a color that would work better for Cori. So off to the store for spray paint.

I put the desk and matching chair out on the driveway with an old shower curtain liner under it, pulled out the drawers and gave it a few sprays…

The neighbors thought I was crazy when I then painted over all the paint I just sprayed. (Those drawers sat in the driveway all day like that.)

You don’t normally need two coats of paint. I went ahead and did two coats any way. I wanted the pink to be good and covered and I wanted to make sure the old white and blue colors didn’t bleed through.

Once those layers on the desk and chair were dry, I threw on a quick coat of wax and then took a piece of medium grit sandpaper (180 I think) and gave a quick swipe to a few of the areas that had the bright pink spray. One more coat of wax for protection and it was done.

I firmly believe if you’re going to do something, you might as well go crazy so I took the spray paint and gave a quick pass to the insides of the drawers and the hardware too (after I removed it from the drawers of course). Then two coats of paint and wax on the drawer fronts and the hardware was dry.

Once everything was all dry, I took the fabric I had used to recover the chair and cut pieces to fit the bottom of the drawers. A coat of Mod Podge and quick sanding to finish them off and the drawers were ready too.

Here is the “new” desk:

I just love the way the woodwork is highlighted with the paint distress. The hardware stands out so well too. All in all, I am pretty pleased with this one.

(Is there some kind of support group out there I should be looking into…?)

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2 Comments

  • Reply
    A Pinterest Addict
    May 26, 2012 at 4:50 PM

    I love it! Especially the cheetah print!

    • Reply
      scottiev
      May 26, 2012 at 8:02 PM

      Thanks! It’s the best thing I have done so far- I am really proud of it. Can’t wait to get that nightstand done, it’ll just have to be after this table you’ve got me inspired to do.

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