Mid Century Desk Makeover

Have you ever had one of those perfect Craiglist moments? You type in Mid Century and search the furniture ads hoping to find a reasonably priced desk, find a listing from a month ago for a free desk, text the person thinking there is no way it's still available. But it is! No? Not exactly? Well the rare Craigslist trifecta (what I wanted, still available, & FREE!) happened to me recently when I found the desk I was looking for my One Room Challenge home office project. 

It was pretty rough looking, but it definitely had potential. (The other drawers were in the truck. The one that was left in was stuck in with a secret latch that I didn't have time to figure out while we were loading it.) It's a beast.

I could tell that under all the corrosion and powdery stain there was some great hardware.  I used an orbital sander to sand down some of the drawers that were sticking to make them move smoothly.

Somehow I didn't get photos of the next two steps, but I scuffed up the laminate top a bit with 220 grit sandpaper and then gave the whole thing a good coat of Zinser Bulls Eye 1-2-3 to seal it and prime it. Then my Dad helped me out and gave it two coats of Benjamin Moore Bold Blue in semi-gloss, lightly sanding the top between coats with 320 grit.  Then came 3 coats of Polycrylic, sanding between coats according to the directions. This is after one coat of paint:

Then I started in on that gnarly hardware. As you can see, the metal was very corroded and pitted and the stain on the wood handle had deteriorated and was powdery.

Everything got a good sanding with 220 grit.  I made sure to go in the same direction with the sandpaper on the metal pieces because I was going for a brushed nickel look and I intended some of the sanding lines to show in the end. Then I used 320 grit sandpaper to finish the metal pieces and smooth the sanding lines a little bit. You can see the difference in this before and after.

The handles got a new coat of stain. I used Minwax Golden Pecan because I wanted a yellower tone to match the wood in my room.

I put it all back together and that was it.  Except for the carrying of the beast up three flights of stairs from the basement to the office! I didn't do that part...

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Thanks for checking out my project!