The desk

My latest project was to revamp my desk. I've had it as long as I can remember and this is it's third look. It was originally a pale yellow, then my dad painted it white to match the rest of my bedroom when I was younger. Now, years later, the white is dirty and scratched and in bad shape all around. It also doesn't have anything white to match with any more either.

I had seen a few pictures of furniture finishes that I really liked and decided to give it a try. "Shabby chic" and "Antique" stood out to me most.

The first step was to clean and sand the desk.

When you have sore arms and a dusty floor you can move along. The drawers had to come out and the handles had to be taken off too.

The next step (that I wanted to skip at first) is to paint the whole thing solid brown. In the end the brown is going to give the allusion of wood showing through. This should be give ample time to dry before you start the next part.

Anywhere that I wanted a distressed or chipped edge I rolled a candle on. The wax will then get painted over.

On top of the brown I chose to use pink. It was between pink, mint and sea foam green. It really should be no surprise that I went with pink..
I had to do 2 coats and let the paint dry in between.

Once everything was dry and set I took out my sand paper again and gently rubbed the waxed areas. This pulls off the pink paint and lets the brown "wood" show through. The more you wax and sand the more distressed it will look.

The final step was to make the fresh pink paint look a little older and more lived in. I filled a cup with water and mixed the brown paint into it to make a wash and then applied it with a cloth and my fingers.

I'm super happy with the finished results and I'm ready for a new project!
xoxo