The closet to office makeover has officially begun! I am so excited to share this desk transformation with you today. I have seriously tried to master this effect for years & have gone through shelves, a bed set & my share of desks all without success. I was so excited when I came across a new trick to try – I had nothing to lose. I found this gorgeous desk on Craigslist, it was listed for $60 & literally a 3-minute drive from our place. Being the classic Craigslist idiot – I offered $30 (because girls gotta stay in my budget!) & they accepted. We picked up the desk & I got the garage all set up.
The first thing I did was wipe down the desk & remove all the hardware (handles) & then begin sanding. Now, you can save A LOT of time by not sanding and just painting directly over this cleaned color. I wanted my shabby chic desk to be white with black underneath, so for me, sanding and staining were necessary.
Tip 1: If you can, sand outside. Our entire garage got covered with a layer of dust. Whoops.
Tip 2: Invest in a hand sander – we received ours as a Christmas gift but you can get a similar kind at Home Depot for $30-$50. In my opinion, worth EVERY penny. I used 220 grit sandpaper and sanded the shiz out of this desk.
Once it was completely sanded & the garage detailed (sorry hubby!), it was wiped down and stained. I’m pretty sure when you stain you wipe it on & wipe it off. However, I loved the dark look I got when I just wiped it on, so I didn’t wipe it off. In some places where I knew I would be distressing (top & all corners), I added a second layer after it dried. I absolutely LOVE Minwax in ‘Ebony’ it was the perfect dark color for this project.
So here is the fun part. In all of my other distressing projects, I would paint on the color & then sand away & stain – NO BEUNO. Whip out your baby’s butt cream. I’ve read other projects where Vaseline was used, but after tearing apart our house & not finding any – figured that Presley’s butt cream was an almost identical consistency & idea so I went with it (Because I’m far too lazy to run across the street to Walmart). I painted on the Diaper cream (Desitin, Aquaphor, etc.) on any of the areas I planned on distressing – so, various parts around the flat surfaces & then on all the corners, edges & places the desk would normally have worn. Then painted immediately over. The vaseline/butt cream creates a barrier that the paint won’t stick to – it’s GENIUS. I went pretty heavy with the butt cream because I wanted this thing DISTRESSED. I used an old brush that had seen better days & sloppily (but gracefully) painted over the entire desk. I waited a few hours & applied a second sloppy coat to make sure it was white enough & you couldn’t see crazy brush strokes.
After the paint dried, I took an old cloth and rubbed over the places I applied the butt cream – the paint flakes right off & BEAUTIFULLY. It chips off and looks completely normal, in some spots I went over with some sandpaper to give it some texture instead of just flaked off paint. But holy crap – I was seriously screaming from my garage in my sports bra. My neighbors must have thought I was crazy. I decided to do the drawers in a light pink so give the desk a little more dimension than just all white.
E ASY peasy. Throw a top coat on (I ended up using wax which I now swear by) and let it sit in a well-ventilated area for a week. Stare at it daily and just countdown until you can put all the things in & on it. Dang for cure time. And for following directions.
TIPS on staying CHEAP: If you’ve been here a while, you know how much of a budget we are on. We live on a stipend so all my crazy projects are done for very little. Always check Craigslist first. Offer LESS than what you are willing to pay. That’s just a Craigslist rule. They say No, and counteroffer. Save yourself a few bucks. Use products you have around the house. This white paint was purchased by the gallon and I have used it on a bed set, our laundry room & now this. The pink was a sample from Home Depot for $3. You can have ANY color made into a sample! ALSO, both Lowes and Home Depot have ‘Mistints”. I check every morning because full gallons of paint go for $5. These are the colors people decided they didn’t want, return & Home Depot still want to sell. Ask neighbors to borrow paint, a sander, stain – reach out & ask for help. It’ll save you money and the world goes round.
Have you refinished any furniture? Any extra tips for staying on a tight budget? Send them my way!
Breanna says
It looks awesome Tausha! 🙂 You are like…superwoman. A jack of all trades! Love it! 🙂
Rachel says
OOH I love how it turned out! Great job! We’re renting (military life) at the moment and don’t have a lot of space, but are hoping to move home and to a permanent place in the next few months. We have a bedroom set I LOVE, but have been seriously thinking of doing something similar to. They got a little beat up (and bitten/chewed) when we got a new puppy a couple weeks after buy the set. I’ll definitely have to come back to this!
My Wholesome Home
Amberly says
This is so cute!!! 🙂