Thrift Store Desk Makeover

It’s time for another DIY At Home challenge and this month’s challenge was right up my alley – a thrift store makeover.  The only problem was choosing what project in my thrift store stash of projects I should work on!   I had actually found this desk at Goodwill right before we moved and when I saw the price tag of $19.91 I snagged it quick!  I knew I would need a desk for our new home and I needed one that was finished on the back since I would use it floating in the room.

It was scratched all over on top but it was solid wood and had great lines so I knew it would be amazing after a makeover.   One of my goals this year is to get my office finished and functional so I decided to tackle this desk as part of this month’s challenge hoping that having a pretty desk in there will be just the inspiration for me to tackle and finish the whole office.

I wasn’t positive how the top would look, but after sanding it down to the bare wood it looked amazing and was ready for stain!

I wanted to try out a new product that Rustoleum sent me – they have a new Milk Paint line and I really liked this Kensington Gray color for this piece.  I already loved their Chalked paint line but I may like this one just as much or even better. I can’t wait try it on another project!  The picture above has one coat of milk paint and I was super surprised at how well it covered 1 coat – no sanding or primer on bottom just start painting!  But I love also how the wood grain texture can still be seen in the paint.  This piece did have very pronounced wood grain so I’ll have to see what it looks like on another piece.

I used a pre-stain conditioner on the top (it just helps achieve a more even stain finish) and then did 1 coat of Varathane Penetrating Wood stain in Dark Walnut.  Followed by 1 coat of Varathane Triple Thick Satin Poly.  While all that was drying I spray painted the hardware with Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint.

And here’s the finished project!

I LOVE how it turned out!

The top stained up so pretty and I love the contrast with the paint and the dark hardware.

Look at that gorgeous top!  I really prefer a stained surface on pieces that are going to be used heavily on top – I just find that it hold up much better to things being moved, scraped, coffee mugs, etc.  So I am so glad the top was able to be salvaged and stained!

So yes, my plan worked and I am totally excited and inspired to get to work on the rest of my office so I can get this beauty of a desk in there and get to finally use it!  I’m going to let you help keep me on track and accountable so my plan is have a post each week on my office progress until it is done.  I’d love to be finished with it by the end of April so that gives me 6 weeks!     The room has already been painted although I think the trim still needs to be done and then I have to find and replace the light fixture, figure out a rug and curtains, find/buy an office chair and do lots of purging/organizing/decorating.

Oh and here’s how the back looks.  This will actually be what you see from the door in the office except with all the pretty things on top    I love how it turned out and am so glad I grabbed this at Goodwill even though it took me quite a while to give it a makeover.

I can’t wait to see what all the other At Home DIY participants tackled for the thrift store makeover challenge – truly my favorite kind of makeover!  Check out all their projects below:

 

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