A few months back, I was headed to a yard sale I had seen advertised on a Sunday. It happens to be the yard sale where I purchased the antique table we used as our Sweet Clover desk. But I digress.
I was driving down a rolling country road, singing along loudly with Ellie Goulding, hopes soaring as I approached my destination; but then, SCREEEEEEEECH. A pile of furniture appeared before me on the side of the road with a sign that read “FREE”. I left the car running in the middle of the road pulled over and parked, and stared in bewilderment! A beautiful midcentury desk and chair lay there waiting for me to take them home and love them. (The chair is still in my garage waiting for love in a queue of 847 pieces of furniture). I summoned all of my strength and heaved the desk and chair into the back of my vehicle as fast as I could. This piece, my friends, was my treasure!
Right around the time I found this desk, Chris switched jobs and I decided we needed a desk with more storage, like this one! We had been living with this gray desk…..
Lucky for me, my mother in law had let me know if I ever wanted to rehome this desk, she’d love it. So it was win win for everyone- I had all the excuses I needed to replace it!
I knew I wanted to show off the clean lines of the midcentury desk, and also preserve some of the wood. The top of it was laminate, so I wanted to cover that up with paint. I decided to mimic my two toned dining room sideboard and paint the body white, and leave the drawers wood.
I removed the drawers, and then sanded the entire body with my orbital sander using 160 grit paper. I then gave it three coats of Kilz Adhesion primer. YES 3 coats. I did this because I wanted a nice solid white finish, and primer is thicker than paint, so the more coats primer, the less coats of paint (which is generally more expensive!). If I had given it one coat of primer, I’d have likely done 5 coats of paint and not been happy. With three coats of primer, I was able to apply just two coats of paint (6 total versus 7 total, so less work and less waste!).
Anyhow, as I mentioned, I gave it two coats of paint- I used General Finishes Snow White which I love for pure white on furniture. After it was dry, I applied General Finishes Satin Finishing Wax to protect. I love using this wax because it doesn’t yellow; It is not as durable as a topcoat, but I don’t mind having to occasionally retreat rather than redoing an entire piece because it yellowed.
When it was all done, I put it in my living room, added a bentwood chair, and was thrilled with the new look!
Here’s a closer look- the drawers didn’t need anything but a wiping; they were in great condition. And I loved the original hardware with the touch of black and brass.
And here it is farther away… I feel like Grover here. Neeeeeeeaaaaaaar….. or Far!
Well, that checks one way overdue furniture redo post off of my giant list! Have a great Wednesday!
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