DIY White and Gold Desk: Part 1

Over the last couple of days I have been hard at work with getting some projects done around the house.  I had finally decided on painting the desk we bought off Craiglist white and repainting the tarnished gold hardware a bright metallic gold.  Check here to see the overall design aesthetic for our little office area!

At this point, our office is in a section of our living room.  In this house, the living room is very long but slightly narrow (compared to its length).  It's got two windows in the front that are the perfect set up for a Christmas tree, but for the rest of the 11 months of the year (yes Christmas last an entire month in our house), that section was pretty empty.  A few months ago when we found our desk on Craiglist, I decided to move it to that front section and voila!  It fit perfect.

Now the bad blogger I am, but I didn't get a before shot of the whole office area before I started tearing it all apart to get the desk outside to be painted.  However, I did get one before I had removed the desk frame!

My first step to getting the desk in better shape was of course painting.  So I headed to Lowe's and got the white color of my favorite spray paint.  I also grabbed a can of Zinsser Bulls Eye 1-2-3 Primer/Sealer just to make sure the spray paint really adhered to the desk.  (The spray paint is paint+primer but because this is a frequently used and abused piece I really wanted to make sure everything withheld for a while).

Once I had my supplies, I grabbed my trusty hand sander like this one and some medium grade sand paper like this and started sanding.  Make sure to not use too much pressure and go in circular motions, really just letting the sander do its job.

You can see the how just a quick rub of the sander takes off the shiny top coat to allow the new paint to stick better.

Once I had it all sanded, I got a damp paper towel and just lightly wiped down the entire desk.  I also wiped down inside the drawers just to get out all the dust and cobwebs so no paint stuck to it and made it harder to clean later.

I grabbed the spray primer and gave the entire desk an even coat of the primer.  Make sure to read the back label on instructions when getting started with this primer and REALLY REALLY shake well.

I let the primer dry for at least an hour and then started with the spray paint.  Remember thin even layers are better than one thick layer.  I promise...you'll regret taking what you think is a short cut in the end.  Let dry for at least 30 minutes between coats.

This is what happens if you don't shake the primer enough...please shake the snot out of your primer and paint!

To fix this issue (thank goodness it only happened on one drawer), I removed the sand paper sheet from the sander and scrubbed with a good bit of strength.  I was scared to use the sander on this stage because I didn't know if it would remove the primer, but it probably would have been quicker to do.

For this piece, I gave it 2 even coats of the paint and then let it dry for another hour.

Once the paint had totally dried, I then sprayed it down with a PolyAcrylic spray to make sure it was super protected.

Let the topcoat dry for at least an hour and then you can bring it inside.  The Poly spray recommends letting it really dry for 24 hours before you start using the piece though.  This gave me plenty of time to tackle the desk frame.  I repeated all the steps from the drawers on the frame and paid special attention to the top and the outer sides since that what will be seen/used most.

While this  drying, I'm going to get to work on the gold hardware which I'll show you next!

I hope you enjoyed this DIY, and as always, thanks for stopping by!