Well the craft room is definitely coming along. After organizing the entire space, building a new bookcase and adding new storage the next step is a little painted desk makeover! A coat of blush paint will add a feminine touch while giving this gorgeous old desk new life.
The best part of this little painted desk makeover is that it’s week 3 of our little room makeover… which means it’s almost over! Of course the vision board from week 1 was the perfect bit of inspiration for the entire challenge… and last week we tackled storage for the craft room.
This week we’re tackling the elephant in the middle of the room. (Literally!). I mean just take a look at this photo of week one… if that’s not a horrifying before photo I don’t know what is!
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Even last week’s round of new organization did wonders to making this room a functional space… I mean you can see the carpet so that’s kind of awesome.
The desk was the next piece of the puzzle. Honestly I thought long and hard about whether or not to paint it. I actually picked it up spontaneously on a solo road trip home from Atlanta almost two years ago. I stopped to stretch my legs at a random antique mall (that’s a thing right?) and found this little desk all the way in the back tucked in a corner.
You can see from the photo I took to send home that it’s even more incredible on the inside than it is on the outside… all of those little cubbies are adorable and the turned legs are kind of my jam. The price tag was unbelievable so I asked for help putting it in my little car and went home. Of course, it’s an old desk so its not in perfect condition. The wood is warped in places, there’s cracks and water rings… when you’re old it’s not uncommon to have a few kinks in your armor.
I instantly saw this pretty desk covered in a coat of gorgeous blush paint to spruce her up and make her young again!
Once I got her home I was overcome with doubt… the hubster and my Mom told me painting this desk was a horrible idea and I should leave it as it was. I almost did but I just couldn’t get over the idea of a blush colored desk. So I finally bit the bullet… although I left the interior wood for now. The inside was fairly protected and in much better shape so I couldn’t bring myself to paint it just yet. I guess we’ll see as we go!
Isn’t she gorgeous!? I’m in love with the blush color! It’s called pressed flower from Sherwin Williams and I am so smitten with how the entire desk turned out!
Of course, if you’ve never attempted a painted desk makeover before you may be wondering what type of paint I used.
I broke out the enamel for this one and went with Sherwin Williams All Surface Enamel, it’s water based so it cleans up with soap and water (score!) but it dries to a hard scratch resistant finish. I do love chalk paint (like I used on the blue craft cabinet you can see in the background) but I wanted this piece to be hardy and functional since I’ll be crafting on it.
I mean there’s nothing like a million little craft projects to put a piece of furniture through the ringer!
I think those turned legs might be my absolute favorite part of the desk! I love the little cubbies but unless this desk is used for writing the top will mainly be closed so you can’t see the inside! Which means the legs are the leading bit of charm!
For this painted desk makeover I spent about an hour and a half with the paint brush.
I don’t know why I always think painting will take forever… it’s really the prep work that takes a long time. Sanding, cleaning, priming… actually painting a piece doesn’t take very long at all!
Of course, whenever I’m painting a piece I go through the same couple questions: is it dull, dry and clean? Dull meaning is the surface shiny/glossy? Paint doesn’t bond properly to a glossy surface so if it was glossy sanding and priming would be in order. Since this desk is rather old it hasn’t been glossy for quite some time… so I could skip that step!
(Psst! Still looking for painting help? Check out Inside the Paint Can: Beginner Tip and Tricks for Interior Painting and find all my paint tips in one place!)
Ready to Paint?! Don’t forget the painting supplies!
If I were using a normal paint I would have primed the surface but since I was using an enamel I didn’t have to worry about bonding. So I got to skip the priming step too… score!
I cleaned the whole thing off with a damp rag to make sure any dust or loose bits of dirt were free and then waited for the whole thing to dry. Luckily this piece was fairly clean already so it didn’t take a lot of scrubbing… not like the pie safe in our kitchen! That thing took my hubby, brother and I several hours of just scrubbing to get to the second step!
Once this baby was clean and dry we had hit all three steps (clean, dull and dry!) so I moved on the best part! Painting!
I spread a plastic drop cloth under this baby and painted it right in the craft room… some people don’t like to paint in the house because then the house smells like paint. I guess that’s one perk of working in a paint store… I no longer can smell paint. It’s so normal to me that it doesn’t even register.
That kind of worries me.
But it makes painting in the house pretty easy!
I worked my way all the way around the desk, painting the legs, the sides, all the weird nooks and crannies before standing up and painting the surface of the desk. I used a brush to do the entire thing (I like an XL purdy cub brush because the short handle makes painting furniture super easy) and it went super fast! By the time I made it through the first coat the first leg of the desk was dry so I went ahead and started on the second coat.
The second coat is my favorite becasue that’s when the paint reallllllly starts to cover. No matter how neatly you put the paint on the first coat of paint is always the ugly coat. It’s streaky and you can see the wood through the paint… that’s just it’s nature. But by the second coat you can see what the real color is going to look like.
It’s like magic.
I’m so glad that the entire thing is painted… I love it so much! Do you have a piece you’ve been going back and forth on? At this point I have to say go for it… in my case it was definitely worth it!
If you haven’t seen the rest of the Craft Room Makeover find it here:
If you’re following along with the $100 Room Makeover Challenge check out everyone else’s weekly progress here:
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