First Blog Post: a desk re-vamp

For my very first blog post I thought I would focus on one of my most recent projects: refurbishing a sad little desk from my local antique store.  At only $30 I thought it was steal and couldn't resist bringing it home so I could spruce it up and give it some new life.

Here's a before image of the desk when I first brought it home:

And after!

The person who painted over the original color of the desk with the white paint did a rushed paint job, and there were lots of nicks and scratches that needed to be covered up and smoothed over.  I also thought the dated hardware needed replacing.

The drawers also had some remnants of this awesome old drawer liner in them, so I peeled all of that off and scrubbed 'em clean.

After sanding the entire desk down and wiping it of dust, I mixed up a new paint color.  I really wanted to paint it a nice light blue gray, but since the only paint I had on hand was a much darker version I decided to mix it up with some leftover white paint from a previous project and create a color of my own.

Normally with projects like this you would prime the furniture first before painting with your chosen color, but since the desk was already painted white I decided to skip that step.  After laying on two coats of the lighter blue gray paint I decided to dry brush a slightly lighter color of the same hue (just mixing a bit of white into the color I was using) over the previous color to give it a nice antiqued finish.

After deciding that the paint job was good-to-go, the last step for this part was to spray the desk with a few coats of polyurethane to protect the finish and preserve it over time.  There are plenty of brands out there you can use, but I like Varathane's Interior Satin since it dries fast and doesn't have a lingering odor to it like other brands.

The very last element to add was the new hardware.  I still wanted the pull type that would resemble what was originally on the desk rather than going with some kind of knob, and I managed to find these at Anthropologie (one of the best places to find interesting pieces of hardware).  You can find them online here.

 
I'm in love with the color of this desk and think it could also be just the right size for a vanity or a place to keep your laptop, etc.  I'll be sad to see it go.  If only I lived in a house instead of a one-bedroom apartment.  *sigh*  One day.