Antique Desk

One of our best GoodWill finds yet was an antique drop-down desk, similar to the one pictured below.

When my mom and I look for furniture to up-cycle, we look for a few things:

1) It has to be made out of quality material. For example, if we buy anything that is wood, we make sure it is made of real wood and not particle board. This ensures that we will have a piece that will last us a long time, and will look good when we stain or paint it.

2) It has to be priced reasonably. We always consider how much the item costs first, then we think about the cost of the materials that we will need to up-cycle it. If the piece is too expensive, the project isn’t as fun and we might not make anything if we resell it.

3) It has to be unique! We always want a piece that looks unique in some way. We want it to be a special piece- one that we couldn’t find easily in a store.

This desk had everything on our list. It was made of quality wood, it was $9 and it was antique. It even came with the original, old fashion key! This was the perfect project for us.

We decided that we wanted to paint the desk rather than staining the wood. I chose to keep this piece for my office, which needed a pop of color, so I decided to paint it a goldenrod yellow. Our goal was to maintain the antique feel of this piece, so we used a distressing technique rather than painting it so it looked brand new.

The first step we took was to sand the desk- we always sand anything wooden so the paint applies nicely. Next, we used Vaseline to line the edges of the desk (the Vaseline protects the wood from paint.) We applied it randomly so it looked like the paint had been chipped over a period of time, giving it an antique, distressed look. Next, we used a spray gun to apply two coats of paint. We left the desk to dry for 2-3 days before we were ready for the last step. Our final job was to wipe away any spots on the desk where we had used Vaseline. We used an old towel and simply wiped away each area (these are easy to spot because the paint looks shiny in the areas with Vaseline.) The paint came off easily and it looked great!

Now I have this great desk that will add a bit of color and character to my office!

If you’re interested in upcycling your own furniture, check out the DIY Network’s video gallery for some great instructions and ideas.