A Place to Study

26.1.14

Craigslist can be a creeeeeepy place. Honestly it scares the bejeezus out of me to buy something on there - however the deals are sometimes too good to pass up!!! With careful consideration and possible police protection, I do occasionally venture into Craigslist land to buy things. Only occasionally.

Take this desk, for example! $30.

WHAT?!? How do you pass that up!?

I love the lines of this and the curves and the original hardware was in fantastic shape. The top obviously needed some major work, but the whole piece was salvageable! My plan was stain for the top and chalkpaint for the bottom.

Here was my inspiration:

Pretty, right? So, the first step was to sand that top down. The trick to sanding anything to bare wood is varying grades of sandpaper. I started with 50 grit (super rough) to remove the majority of the stain and varnish. After most of it was gone, I switched to 120 grit to finish the removal and then ended with 320 (super fine) to make it smooth as glass. Here she is all sanded down.

For what it's worth, I have this sander - The Black and Decker Mouse. I'm sure there are much better versions of this out there and my husband calls this a baby sander, but whatever.. it works.

Here's the link: Mouse Sander

Remember that once you sand something down like this, you have to use tacky cloth (sticky cheesecloth, essentially) to remove any dust or particles before you stain.

I applied 3 coats of Minwax Tudor PolyShades on it - I like the polyshades for things like this because the top comes to a beautiful shine and smooth finish - you also dont have to sweat it with the bubbles in the poly.

Between each coat (after it's fully dry), lightly sand with 320 grit sandpaper or even a plain brown paper bag. Just enough to get any remaining bumps off.

So you can see my finished top is gorgeous, right? Love that!

I started painting with a chalk paint for the bottom. Chalk paint is NOT chalkBOARD paint. It's paint that has grout or plaster of paris mixed in so that it dried hard and chalky. I love it because it's durable, easy to work with, virtually mistake proof and to be blunt - it's idiot proof.

Here's my recipe for Chalk Paint:

1/2 cup hot water

1/2 cup plaster of paris

1 1/2 cup paint

Mix plaster of paris with hot water. After mixed, add to paint. Mix well and start painting. Know that this recipe makes enough paint to paint something like this desk or a small cabinet. A little goes a LONG way.

This desk took 2 coats of chalk paint. In hindsight, I should have primered it first because the varnish started to seep through my paint. To fix that, I hit those seepy spots with this primer after the first coat of chalk paint:

The trick is to find a primer that is Shellac Based. It creates a barrier that cannot be breached. Any time you (or I) paint anything that has varnish, poly, etc on it, you have to use this primer first. It will save you!!

Always take the drawers out to be painted and the hardware OFF. Do not try to paint around the hardware - it does not pay to be lazy. :)

Once my drawers are painted and the frame is finished, I put the drawers back in to dry in place. Make sure you don't push them all the way in without hardware!! (learn from my mistake..)

After everything is dry for a good 24 hours, you can wax or poly the chalk paint. I use this wax:

I know a lot of bloggers love Annie Sloane wax, but it's too expensive for my blood. I like this wax because it makes a hard, beautiful finish that isn't hard on my bank account! All you do is use a soft cloth, and start working the wax onto the paint finish. Once you have a nice even layer of wax on the whole piece, let it sit for 10-15 minutes and then use another soft cloth (my husband's old tshirts are fabulous for this!) and buff it off. I have also use our car buffer to do this step - it works well too. I am also coveting the buffer that attaches to your drill... perhaps one day!

And the finished piece! Turned out so beautiful... I love!