Today we will be looking at the elephant in the room. To be precise the large, brown, pressed wood elephant, in the form of my hubby’s desk! This beauty was passed down by my hubby’s Dapaw when he and Nana moved to Oregon this past spring. While it is large and has plenty of storage it doesn’t match what my hubby calls “Our Style” (If you ever have the chance please ask Trevor to describe “Our Style”, better yet get my Mom to do an imitation of Trevor talking about his style, it’ll knock your socks right off!).
We knew that we wanted to paint all of the furniture in the office white to give the room a light, open feeling. However we didn’t want to just paint everything white and call it a day. We wanted a bit more interest than that! While surfing pinterest we came across the perfect inspiration, in the form of this painted desk makeover from The Thinking Closet. We loved the surprise pops of blue!
So we took my hubby’s sentimental desk from Dapaw and turned it from drab to fab (love you sweetie!). Our very own painted desk masterpiece!
It took about three coats of white latex paint to cover the surface area, only about one coat of blue to cover the interior. With dry time (and goof off time) It took us about 4 days to fully complete this project. We also added 1 coat of poly to the entire desk, with an extra coat on all of the surfaces (just in case, this is my hubby’s desk after all… he’s a bit hard on the furniture!).
We found that after the first coat of paint we had a streaky mess… what we call the ugly phase in painting, this still scares my hubby but he’s starting to learn that it’s normal! The hubbs even got down and dirty, claiming the weirdest positions were the most “comfortable” for painting. Does anyone else paint like this?
Plus right as the second coat started to dry our little black kitty cat Jasper nosed his way into the room, streaking through the fresh paint! Luckily I managed to grab him before he ran across our gray linen couch with his little white paws, but there was plenty of screaming in the Smith house as I washed those little tootsies off!
Before our makeover the desk had a combination of pressed wood and gold metal handles. While we would love to update them with shiny new ones one day soon, that isn’t in the budget at the moment. What we had was a can of left over spray paint in a shade of blue just darker than the drawer color. We took those babies outside and hit them with the spray and after an afternoon drying in the Alabama sun they were ready to be reattached! We love the pop of color they bring to the room.
While this isn’t the most glamorous re-model we love the impact it made on the space. 4 afternoons, a bit of paint and we have a brand spanking new desk, full of sentimental value for the hubby (Thanks Dapaw and Nana!). Plus anything that counts as a good excuse for a paint fight is good fun in my book! Don’t worry no furniture was harmed in the making of this re-model!
Linking up to: Miss Mustard Seed
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Oh my goodness gracious! I am SO honored that our roll-top desk makeover played a small role in inspiring this one. You and your hubby look like you have TONS of fun together (hooray for paint fights!). I’ll definitely be featuring this project in my Reader Showcase on the blog next week (if that’s cool with you). Thanks so much for the link love, too! Hugs!
Thanks so much for stopping by Lauren! We would love to be in your readers showcase next week! Thanks again!
Great post! Loved the paint fight but especially how the desk turned out!
Thanks Marmie, I’m glad you liked it! We always have a blast working on our home, it’s nice to know others like what we’ve done!
Love all the little details you did here – the blue inside – that’s so fun!! I’m going to be doing a ton of paining soon, I’l be sure to come back for tips 🙂
You’re so sweet! I can’t wait to see what you’re painting!
Love seeing furniture makeovers! Like the white a lot – really brightens it up! And the blue inside is a fun surprise!
Thanks Meg I loved the blue… I didn’t want the whole thing to be white!