A Shabby Happy Desk

After my blue sideboard sold (which I really DID want to keep, but practiced a lot of self restraint!), I figured I'd give it a go again.  I didn't even have to hunt Kijiji very long before I found this awesome desk.

I emailed the lady right away and told her that I really, really wanted it.  The next day Fin and I took a little drive out to her house to pick it up.  While we were walking down to their basement, Fin spotted a humungous doll house.  We are talking massive.  It was a replica of their house, with real cedar shingles and all.  I didn't think I'd ever get Fin away from it so that we could actually get the desk out of the house.  It was a good sign. I love buying stuff from good people.  

I sanded the whole thing down using the palm sander and then got to work.  I gave everything but the work surface and the top of the stool 2 coats of primer and then 2 coats of latex paint in Sherwin William's Midday (the yellow we had left over from our ill fated half wall).  I then distressed it heavily and did a coat of poly on the whole thing.  After the work surface and the top of the stool were really sanded down, I gave them both a couple coats of Minwax Polyshades in American Chestnut.

I brought it into the house to take pictures.....but it just wasn't sitting right with me.  It was too bright, and the paint really didn't react well around the distressing - it was splotchy from the sander.  I couldn't see it in the terrible garage lighting, but once it was in the house I just knew it needed to be fixed.  I honestly didn't have the patience or the time to sand it all down again and start from scratch.  Instead, I decided to give it a white wash of sorts.  I mixed some high gloss white paint (our baseboard paint) with glaze and then rubbed it on using an old cloth.  It worked.  Phew.  The white blended the dark and light patches and gave it a much more 'used' look.  I also picked up new knobs at Home Depot (that I paid WAY too much for, but totally fell in love with).

After ALL of that, here's how she looked.

Isn't the little stool just the cutest?  I posted her up on Kijiji on Friday night and she was gone by Saturday afternoon.  Love that! I'm learning a tonne as I redo more and more furniture.  My goal is to always at least double my money, which I did with this piece.  Now I am back on the hunt.....

Linking to: Primitive & Proper, Miss Mustard Seed