Craigslist Desk Makeover

I have been on the hunt for a desk for my daughter's room for months now.  

Currently she uses a parsons table we had in the attic.  It fit great, but it has no storage which was a bit of an issue.  

On my hunt on Craigslist, there were several criteria that  the desk had to meet.  For starters it needed to have drawers.  It also needed to be no wider than 42".  Most desks seem to be 48".  With her current room furniture arrangement, a 48" desk just wouldn't work.

Then last week I came across this desk on Craigslist.  They were asking $40 for this Thomasville desk and chair.  After making a deal to pay $30 over the phone I went to pick it up with my dad (my rule of thumb is never go pick up a Craigslist purchase alone).  When I got there I discovered that it wasn't technically a Thomasville.  It was a Huntley by Thomasville, which apparently is a lower line of furniture that they made twenty years ago.  It still seemed to be well made, and I considered walking away from it, but for $30 how could I go wrong.  So in the end I packed it up into my mini van and away we drove.

When I got home I started the disassembly.  When I flipped the chair over to remove the seat it turned out that it wasn't even screwed on.  It was only glued.  I could remedy that.

Another potential issue was that the top seemed to be made of formica.  If not formica, something that had a tough top coating as there wasn't a scratch or dent on the top and the piece is 21 years old.

 The top desk drawer had a painted floral motif.

Luckily that sanded off very easily.

Now it was time to start painting.  I used Annie Sloan chalk paint in Old White which I had in the house already.  My goal was to not spend anymore than the $30 I purchased the desk for.  I used a regular paint brush for the entire desk.  Then after it dried I could see the brush strokes on the top of the desk, so I sanded it all off and used a sponge brush instead on the top only.  It worked perfectly.  I do love that the chalk paint seems to adhere to any type of surface, including whatever the top of this desk is made of.

For the chair, I had a half a can of spray paint in Heirloom White left over from a past project.  By the way...the Heirloom White spray paint is almost exactly the same color as the Old White chalk paint.  I used the spray paint as a base coat which made it so easy to paint something so curvy.  Then I used the old white as a second coat, but didn't have to be perfect in my painting as the two colors are almost identical.

Then I finished the desk off using the clear wax.  I applied it to the desk with the wax brush and then buffed it using a cloth. I also used the cloth to apply the wax to the top of the desk to avoid anymore brush strokes.

I updated the knobs using a silver sharpie pen.  

I used the sharpie to highlight the details of the knobs and handles.

Finally I reupholstered the chair using fabric I had on hand, just waiting to be used on a project like this.  I used screws to attach the cushion.

Here is the finished product:

I love how it came out.

Now my daughter has a beautiful desk with plenty of storage, which will leave the top more available for work to be done.

One more look at the before and after:

I can't wait to hear what you think of this.  I always love and appreciate your comments.

-Judy