Antique Desk Makeover

 

Welcome to the June Sustainable Craft Challenge Blog Hop! The purpose of the Sustainable Craft Challenge Blog Hop (hosted by Julie @ Sum of Their Stories) is to create a sustainable/eco-friendly craft project. This month's theme is FRESH, so instead of buying a new desk, I decided to bring new life to my old desk with a fresh coat of paint.  So I've had this desk forever... like longer than I've been married, and I've been married almost 18 years! My father refinishes furniture, and he gave me the desk when I moved out of my parents' home and into my first apartment. When he gave it to me, it was painted tan and brown. I kept it tan and brown for several years until my family and I moved into a home where I found my own little special spot to create a craftroom. I wanted my tiny craftroom to have a color scheme, and the desk had to match that color scheme, of course. 😁

This was my first craftroom, which was actually a large storage closet. I decided that I wanted the room to have a red, blue, black, and white color scheme. Hence, I painted the desk red with black drawers. Here it still has the original drawer pulls, which I eventually grew bored with. I absolutely loved this cozy little craft closet. 😁

We're a military family, so we moved, and I had a new craftroom. This room was bigger, but I still missed my cozy craft closet. Anyhoo, the desk is still red and black, and it needed a fresh coat of paint after moving across the country...

...But, I waited until we moved again to paint the desk. It definitely needed a fresh coat of paint after another cross-country move. 

For this paint job, I painted the body of the desk black, the six side drawers white, and the center drawer red. This desk makeover was done in April 2021.

I also switched out the drawer pulls. I bought the black drawer pulls years ago, and I finally put them on the desk. I wanted to add a little fun but putting different knobs on the center drawer. These knobs were on another antique piece, but I decided to put different knobs on it.

After painting the desk... I was annoyed that it didn't match my hutch...at all!  And eventually I moved the hutch to the corner next to the desk after I bought a shelf for my yarn, and I had to put another hutch in my craftroom because I didn't have room for it anywhere else. Every time we move, I have to play Tetris with the furniture to see what fits where. 😆

When I bought my yarn shelf, I was really tempted to buy this Hobby Desk and get rid of my antique desk. But I remembered that we move a lot, and furniture that is not made from real wood doesn't always survive the moves. I'm hoping my yarn shelf will survive whenever we move again. During our last move, the movers fell down the stairs with my bedroom bench and broke it. (The guy was okay...) It was not real wood. The bench was so damaged and couldn't be fixed. Trust me, I used all the nails I had to try to nail it back together because I loved that bench. (I still have not found a replacement because I want one just like the one I had...) Anyhoo, most of my furniture pieces are antiques that I've picked up from antique shops and brought it home and gave it new life with a fresh coat of paint or stain. So I think it's more sustainable to buy real wood furniture when possible that is more sturdy versus buying a piece of furniture that can easily break during a move, and then you throw it away because you can't fix it. 

So now it's 2023, and I guess I treat the top of my desk pretty rough because it absolutely needs to be painted again.

These are the paints I used this time, and they've been in my paint stash for a bit. I love the Americana Decor Maxx Gloss Aqua Waters paint. The Maize paint is such a pretty shade of yellow. The yellow and black paints are chalk paints, so after I painted with them, I painted on a thin layer of FolkArt Home Decor Satin Varnish. However, next time I need to paint this desk, I will definitely use a gloss paint because it seems to last longer. 

I didn't feel like taking the desk out to the garage to paint it, so I painted it right here in my craftroom. 😬 Since the body of the dresser was already black, I just added a fresh coat of black. It was a thin coat. I had to do a bit more work on the top. I painted on a couple layers of black and the varnish. I had to add several coats of yellow to cover up the red paint. The blue drawers only needed two coats of paint.

After the paint dried, I added the black drawer pulls. I love these black drawer pulls against the yellow and blue drawers.

Then I put my TV and other stuff on my desk top. I always keep one of my favorite yarn bowls on my desk.

A few months ago, I bought myself a nice, comfy office chair since my old chair had contributed to me having back pain. I spend most of my day here in my craftroom watching my favorite YouTubers while I crochet. 

Here's my freshly painted desk in my current craftroom.

Thanks so much for stopping by to check out my Antique Desk Makeover! I hope you'll visit the other participants' FRESH and eco-friendly creations below! ↓

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JUNE SUSTAINABLE CRAFT CHALLENGE CO-HOSTS:

Sum of their Stories | How To Give a Denim Jacket a Fresh New Look

Decor Craft Design | DIY Lemon Raised Tray

Purple Hues and Me | DIY Lavender Bags A Fresh Alternative

Sew Crafty Crochet | Antique Desk Makeover

Life as a LEO Wife | Transform Your Home with Coastal Farmhouse Decor Refresh

 Simple Nature Decor | Outdoor Porch Refresh/Table Makeover

JUNE SUSTAINABLE CRAFT CHALLENGE PROJECTS:

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