Our first 'side' project (something not involving major work on the house) was this Pottery Barn-esque desk that I found on Craigslist. My old desk was a K-Mart monstrosity that took up the whole room and I was keeping my eyes open for something simple and classic that I could paint white.
Unfortunately, the only before photo I have is after we had taken the drawers out and sanded the life out of it! Oops.
I can't remember the exact details on price, but it was priced low enough that a bidding war ensued. Okay, that is an exaggeration - but I did have to up my price to make sure I got it! When we picked it up the confused couple thought they had some sort of priceless antique, but I told them it was just a great re-finishing candidate. Once we got it home it sat in the garage. and sat. and sat. Then I finally begged my husband to start work on it (since I had no idea what I was doing). Finally the prep work began:
We removed all the drawers, placed the desk on some leftover pieces of wood (to facilitate the painting) and got to sanding. Thankfully we own a electric sander, but just a word of caution: the round sander definitely left some waves in the top of the desk. In the future we would try and use a belt sander!
Once the grunt work was done it was on to paint:
The paint is Benjamin Moore Linen White. I wanted it white, but not 'too' white - know what I mean?
Here is where it ends - I have no more pictures! Embarrassingly, the hardware is still not on every drawer, so it's technically not even finished. Goal for next week: get the remaining hardware on and take an 'after' photo!
