Roll Top Desk Makeover

or another title for this post would be "just roll with it". I didn't take a before of this desk but just picture light oak stain. My intention was to paint it just white. Old White ASCP because I didn't want to prime. I did sand the desk top because that gets more wear and tear. Well three coats later and I was having bleed through on the desk top. At this point I ran out of the Old White so I decided two toned it is. I mixed my own chalk paint using my dining room wall color (satin finish) and plaster of paris. recipe: 1/2 cup plaster of paris mixed with 1/2 cup water, then mix with 1 cup paint.

I taped off a line so that when the top is shut you wont see the gray blue inside. I thought about stenciling something accross the line but after I distressed it I liked it.

I then decided to add a little of the color to the detailed part on the legs.

I like how it turned out. I finished the whole thing with wax. I am sorta in love with wax right now.

The hardware was brass. I was going to spray paint it with oil rubbed bronze so I sanded the brass lightly and the finish came right off. Now I had brushed nickel. I liked that even better.

I have never painted a roll top desk before. My concern was how to paint the track so that it will still move. I painted it with two light coats sanding really well in between coats and then waxed to finish. You can see from the pictures that most of the paint sanded off but with a distressed finish it works. For the top part I just made sure not to have too much paint on the brush when I painted the ends that were in the track. It worked great.

I think my next piece needs to be bright teal or peacock blue or something, I am craving some color.

TTFN (I hope that still means what I think it means) ;)-