Roll Top Desk Makeover

Last week Anna, our daughter who just graduated from college, and I did a desk makeover.  She just moved in with Lindsey our other daughter and realized that she had no furniture and if Lindsey were to move out all Anna would have left in the house would be her bed and her dresser.  So she decided there was some furniture accumulation needed on her part.  Last winter she was given a roll top desk and figured this would be a good piece to start with on her quest for enough cute furniture to fill her part of their home. 

 

This is what the desk started out looking like.   I know there are some of you out there that would not ever paint over oak.  If this desk was all solid oak I may have agreed with you, but there are parts of this desk that are paper veneer, so painting it really is no big deal. So relax, you know who you are.

We used our homemade chalk paint again on this project.  Anna started out with light aqua for the first coat.

Once the light aqua coat was dry, she proceeded to the darker aqua.  When you are painting with this kind of homemade chalk paint, it dries very quickly so there is not a long wait between coats.  And if you are going to distress the piece in the end, you really do not need to be super careful either.  Once the last coat was dry, we started distressing with an electric sander and sanding blocks.  When you distress you need to keep in mind natural wear places on the furniture, i.e. around the knobs, edges, corners, etc.

The inside even turned out great.  Knowing how home offices can be, this will probably be the position of the roll top most of the time, so good thing it looks good too. 

We were a bit worried about painting over the roll top, but we did not put a thick coat on it and did some extra sanding in the groves and it works perfect.  Once you have wiped all of the surfaces down after sanding is complete, we used a Minwax furniture wax as the finish.  This takes a bit of elbow grease but is worth it in the end. 

So goes the first piece of Anna’s furniture collection other than bedroom stuff.  You can count on the fact that we are always on the look out for a good garage sale buy to redo.  I will post future projects here. 

I am participating in the following link ups:  Somewhat Simple, Fireflies and Jellybeans, Gluesticks, Beyond the Pikcet Fence, Momnivore's Dilemma, The Shabby Chic Cottage, Blooming Designs, Bubble Nature Creations, Liz Marie, Addicted 2 Decorating, Hof ouse of Hepworths, Stuff and Nonsense, Finding Fabulous, The Shabby Nest, Truly Lovely, Simply Sweet Home, Bubbly Nature Creations, The Answer is Chocolate, Sassy Sites, I Gotta Create, The CSI Project, Sisters of the Wild West, Boogieboard Cottage, It So Very Cheri, DIY Showoff, Natasha In Oz, I Should Be Mopping the Floor, Between Naps on the Porch, Skip to My Lou, Todays Creative Blog, Coastal Charm, Ladybug Blessings, Domestically Speaking, The Thrifty Home, Blue Cricket Design, Fabric Bows and More, My Girlish Whimms, Seven Thirty Three, Sew Much Ado, Someday Crafts, Lil Luna, Mama Hens Coop, {Primp}, Vintage Gwen, Frugally Sustainable, Tidy Mom, Pinkapotmus, Between Naps on the Porch, Etcetorize, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Sew Can Do, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Mod Vintage Life, My Romatic Home, Making The World Cuter, Knick of Time, Slice of Suburbia, At the Picket Fence, French Countrty Cottage, Shabby Art Boutique, Rooted in Thyme, The Charm of Home, 504 Main, A Little Knick Knack, Five Days...Five Ways, Faith, Trust, and a Little Pixie dust, Freckled Laundry, Answer is Chocolate

 

Comments

[Ann]

This is a great look--my hubby would cringe--but then again its NOT solid oak!! Love the shade of blue.It would get lots of use around here.
Ann

[Amy Branton]

Cute!!

[Lori Daniels]

Simply fabulous!

[laurel]

Wow love it!! Love the color too. Your daughter is so pretty. I found you at the primp link party.

[Kristin C.]

Love this desk and the color is awesome! =)

[Kathy Penney]

A rolltop desk! Wow! What a great find! And a great redo! Kathy Penney @ Pinner Takes All

[Kathryn Griffin]

It turned out great! Thank you for sharing. Visiting from Beyond the Picket Fence. Would love it if you would share this at my Make it Pretty Monday party at The Dedicated House. http://thededicatedhouse.blogspot.com/2012/08/make-it-pretty-monday-week-10.html Hope to see you at the bash! Toodles, Kathryn @TheDedicatedHouse

[Becky]

Quite the undertaking--great results. Thanks for linking up.

[Foy Update]

Love your craftiness! We'd like to invite you to our Eat Make Grow Thursday Blog Hop. It is going on now here:

http://foyupdate.blogspot.com/2012/08/eat-make-grow-thursday-blog-hop-3.html

[angie]

love the beautiful color you chose we had chairs in our preschool room at church this very color over 20 years ago

come over and say hi at http://shopannies.blogspot.com

[Christina at I Gotta Create!]

Great way to deck out a first home. She'll love the pop of color!

Thanks so much for linking up at I Gotta Create! <3 Christina

[Justine]

Beautiful! I bet your daughter loves it! Thanks for sharing.

[Kassi @ Truly Lovely]

I LOVE the color you chose! So pretty! Thanks for sharing on Fancy This Fridays... WE featured it today!!! http://www.trulylovelyblog.net/2012/08/fancy-this-features-89/

[Kerryanne @ Shabby Art Boutique]

Love the desk and the colour. Thanks for linking to Shabbilicious Friday.