One mission that I set myself on after moving to a new apartment was to find a new desk. My favorite kind of projects are ones that cost the least amount of money, so I was pleased to find this gem on Craigslist. It only took a couple of days patrolling the “free” section to find exactly what I wanted:

The desk was solid, with perfectly sliding drawers, all the hardware intact and no significant damage. The only problem with it was that it looked old, outdated, beat up and boring. I took it home, removed the drawers, and got to work.

The first thing I did was to scrape away several pieces of clear tape from the top. Then I sanded down the flat surfaces. The primer I got said no sanding was necessary, but it felt wrong to skip that step. Once it was all sanded it was ready for the first of two coats of primer:

For the body of the desk I wanted to find a bold fun color to bring some life back into it. I checked the “mis-tinted” paints section first, because those are sold at a discount. There were a few contenders, but I ended up choosing the turquoise color on the left:

Here it is after one coat of turquoise:

Then I painted a second coat of turquoise and I tried out black for the top:

I loved the way the black looked with the turquoise, but it needed a second coat:

With the desk all painted, it was time to focus on the drawers:

I decided to spray paint the hardware black to match the top of the desk:

I think the hardware looks much better now that it’s all the same color:

And, Voila!

This was my first time repainting a piece of furniture, and now I am hooked – I just want to paint everything! I’m excited to have a brand new desk, especially since it came for the low price of a little paint and primer. Stay tuned for more posts related to this new addiction!