The Desk that Rocks my World!!

I've seen a lot of inspiring furniture renovations in blogland and have taken a real interest in it myself. I wish I had more time and actual work space to dedicate to it, but no dice. When I came across THIS desk on one of my favorite sites, www.betterafter.blogspot.com, I knew I had to have a super fab desk of my own. I was super excited for Yard Sale season to start so I could score me a super cheap desk I could make over. Thanks to a sweet old man, I found one for $15 that even came with a chair. Granted, the chair didn't match but at $15 I didn't care one bit!! It found a new home in my garage until I found inspiration and could decide what to do with it. A few trips to Hobby Lobby later, I saw this fabric and the idea was clear.

The background is black with white & charcoal gray damask type pattern with a magenta pink damask for a pop of color. I saw it and immediately knew what I wanted to do: a black high gloss desk, white handles, white chair and this fabric as the seat of the chair. I was so excited to get started.

Here's the desk originally. It was a beautiful cherry color and had the top not been scratched up, I may have went a different route, but it was so, yay!

Look at those lines!!

And here's the chair that totally doesn't match!

I worked on the chair first. I took off the seat, sanded it down, primed and spray painted the chair. It's not 100% perfect but it's still adorable!!

Sanded

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Primed & Painted

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Ta-Da!!! Love!

I had some help using the heavy duty staple gun because it was a major pain. After completing the entire project, this girl had a Christmas list going...

Arrow Heavy Duty Electric Staple/Nail Gun

Homax Aerosol Spray Gun

Electric Sander

But I digress....

After removing all the handles and taking the drawers out, I got to sanding. I decided to put a spin on it. Even though the desk would be black, I wanted the drawers to be a different color when you pulled them out. A little more visual interest. Here we are in painting progress (and by we I mean the different parts of the desk. There was no way anyone was taking a pic of me in that funny looking mask!)

I used painters tape and news paper to cover the front of the drawers that I didn't want gray. I used my left over gray primer and white primer to prime the desk. I must be honest at this point though, once I saw the white primer on the desk, I was starting to wonder if choosing black was a mistake. It looked so pretty and feminine with the white, but I already had the black, and the idea in my head, so I kept going. I got out my Glidden high gloss black and went to town. It took 3 coats to get it just right but I loved it!! Then I coated it with this bad boy:

Minwax Water Based Polycrylic Protective Finish in Semi Gloss. I wanted something that was an easy clean up without the smell so this was the perfect option. It goes on cloudy and dries clear. I finished up by spray painting the handles white. For my final touch of fabulous, I used spray adhesive and lined the inside of the drawers with fabric. I really couldn't love it more. After seeing how wonderful it turned out, I'd love to do another one but in a completely different way!! Here she is in all her glory...

Wanna see her in action? She's settled into her home and is doing a fantastic job :)

So chic and so stylish!! I love it!!! Yes, I also made the garbage can to match!! Don't you just want one too??