Antique Desk Makeover Kelsey, November 24, 2023November 24, 2023 This desk was a fun one for me and also a learning experience. Years ago, I purchased this white desk from Goodwill for probably $5 or $10. I had been using the desk as a vanity, so it was stained with makeup. Additionally, back when I bought it, I was in an “everything needs to be white and distressed” phase. Years have passed, so my style has changed, as well as my needs for this desk. Time to give it a good ‘ol flip! To start, I removed the hardware. If you have a dirty piece of furniture like I did, you’ll then want to clean it well. I scrubbed the entire piece with a mixture of water and Dawn dish soap. Makeup (foundation in particular) is a super hard stain to remove from white paint. Not to worry though. This desk was going in my home office and the vibe I’m going for is a bit more moody. This to me, means dark paint. After giving the desk a good scrub, I sanded the entire piece by hand. Because I was planning to paint the piece, I didn’t bother trying to get down to the original wood. I just wanted to give it a good scuff so that the new paint had better adhesion. Now here is where I went wrong – I did not use primer. I have painted wood furniture with chalk paint before without primer and it has held up just fine. Since this office desk is getting heavy use, 8 hours a day, five days a week, I should have taken all the necessary steps to ensure the most protection. If you are painting an office desk yourself, I would highly suggest you prime, paint, and apply a topcoat. After a year of use, I have noticed a couple of tiny paint chips that I now need to fix. Moving forward. After sanding, I gave the desk a good wipe-down to make sure there was no dust before I started painting. For paint, I used Rust-Oleums Black Matte Chalkboard paint. For the top and anywhere else that had a flat surface, I used a roller to create a smooth finish. I then used a brush to get the legs and drawers. The paint threw me off for a minute. When you first paint it on, it almost looks blue, but as it dries, especially once you add a second coat, it is clearly black. It was a little tough getting all the nooks and crannies in this piece, especially the beading details around the drawer faces. I used a small paintbrush for those details. Once the paint was dried, I applied a layer of polycryclic. I went with a satin finish top coat which has a little bit of shine to it. I think if I were to do this again, I would have maybe gone with a matte instead to keep that chalk-looking finish. Lots of lessons learned in this furniture flip! The beading details again, made it a bit difficult. All of the added texture and detail created bubbles when applying the polycrylic. Working slowly and using a small brush did help minimize the bubble buildup. I added burlap material to the drawers using wood glue, which has held really well over the past year. I bet you could also use something like Mod Podge. Now to give the desk a more antique look, I picked up some gilding wax from Hobby Lobby for just a few bucks. To use gilding wax, I simply squeezed some out on my finger and rubbed it along the outer edges of the desk, and other detail spots I wanted to highlight. From all that I was reading, you should not apply poly over wax. Wax is applied as a protective topcoat itself. Lastly, we get to the handles. I did not like the childish look of the plastic, flower-shaped handles that were originally on the drawers. I could have run to Hobby Lobby to grab new hardware, but remembered I had some extra wooden handles on hand from a previous furniture flip. Side note: I have found that Hobby Lobby and Amazon have a good selection of affordable hardware. I had to get a little creative to save a couple of bucks, so I found some gold spray paint and clear topcoat spray paint in my cabinet and painted the handles to match the vibe of the rest of the desk. You can tell I had a hard time attaching the handles myself. I recruited the help of my husband to finish that project for me lol! Overall, I am happy with how the desk turned out. It fits the vibe of my office much better than before. Additionally, I learned some lessons when flipping this piece that I hope will help you. Soon I will do an office/guest room reveal so you can see how everything looks together. Furniture Flips antique deskdesk makeoverDIYfurniture fliphome diyrefurbishthrift find
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