Hello, beautiful friends! I’m bringing y’all one cute desk makeover that didn’t start out very cute at all! (And I have a favor to ask at the end!)

Before we get to that, I mentioned last week that I may share a booth update today. I have gotten a lot done so far, but I still have work to do, so I’m not quite ready to share just yet!

I pulled out this desk redo because it was worth a second look…enjoy!

On with today’s makeover…

Like I said, this desk was NOT cute, y’all, but it was FREE! And sometimes, free is better than cute ha ha!

This piece is one of three that came from one of my awesome neighbors:

One night a few summers ago, she texted me a photo of some furniture pieces she was putting on the curb to give me first dibs. I immediately put down my fork mid-dinner, and Jack and I headed right over to grab them up! (Not much will make me move faster than free furniture on my own street!)

I knew right away I wanted the other two pieces, but she hadn’t expected me to be interested in the desk as well. How could I leave a perfectly good desk on the curb?

You can see the other two pieces I redid HERE and HERE.

I’ve included a few affiliate links so you can find the products I love.

The Prep

I started with Dixie Mud filling in a few areas that needed filling in:

Once the mud was completely dry, I sanded those areas smooth with my Ryobi rotary sander.

This desk had been painted brown. If you plan to paint over an already painted piece, you just need to sand enough to smooth out the existing finish.

This one needed quite a bit of smoothing out…

I used my orbital sander on most of it and then came back with my more petite corner cat sander for the smaller areas:

Some of the drawers were sticking, and I noticed that paint had built up on the inside edge where the drawers went in, so I sanded all those areas back to the wood.

I vacuumed up all the sanding dust with my shop vac.

Because this was an older piece and I had exposed the raw wood, I decided to play it safe and prep for possible bleed-through. I used the original BOSS on this set, but that has since been replaced with Bonding BOSS which is both an adhesion AND stain blocking primer.

One coat will usually do the trick, provided you allow it to dry completely for 24 hours.

Paint

Finally, it was time for paint!

I knew I wanted to use this pretty Lotus Bloom stencil:

Cute!!

So, I went in search of a color scheme that I liked and settled on Savannah Mist for the base, applying it with my go-to brush:

If you see Savannah Mist on its own in the jar, it appears to be a gray. However, it is more of a gray-blue, and I just love it!

Adding the stencil

When I stencil, I prefer to use an acrylic craft paint like this white by Delta Ceramcoat.

I applied spray adhesive to the back of my Lotus Bloom stencil and used a smooth surface roller to roll the paint on:

As you can see, I taped off parts of the bottom of the stencil as I wanted the pattern to appear more like lace.

I rolled one coat lightly and then went back with a second coat once the paint was dry. Then, I immediately removed the stencil.

I let the paint on the stencil dry in between.

Once I had added the stencil in all the areas I wanted to, I let everything dry completely. I then went back and sanded everything smooth with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around an old sanding sponge…

The nice thing about using acrylic paint for stencils is that it washes off much more easily than chalk paint. I just ran the stencil under water and used a scraper to help remove the paint. Then I left it tacky side up to dry:

If you want to remove the adhesive from the stencil, you can do that with Mineral Spirits.

Seal

I sealed everything with Clear Coat in satin using the blue sponge applicator…

Applying sealer with the sponge is so easy! Cutting the edges straight provides a flat edge that fits perfectly at the top of the sides! (You can cut it with sharp scissors or a steak knife works great!)

Freebie Desk Makeover Reveal

Here is how this once ugly duckling desk looks now!

It doesn’t even resemble its former self!

As you can see, I also added hardware since it had none before…

The white pulls are from Hobby Lobby and I found the glass pulls in a pack of six at TJ Maxx.

I centered the stencil to work with the glass knobs I used on the lower drawers.

 

 

It’s difficult to see the stencil on the top because of the light from the windows, but here’s a closer look:

I just added it along the back edge.

The drawers

The center drawer got the stripe treatment for a little contrast which I did using FrogTape:

 

I like to tape off the sides of my drawers so there is a nice, clean line when you open the drawer. That wasn’t the case previously:

I was able to sand most of that off though for a cleaner look after…

The drawers looked all dried out from sanding those areas, so I hydrated them with a little Big Mama’s Butta:

This is Suzanne’s Garden which has a lovely, subtle rose scent, but it is available in several scents, the newest being Ginger Zen which smells amazing! It also comes in an unscented version.

Inside the drawers

As for the insides of the drawers, I didn’t have any fabric that would work nicely with this desk, so I pulled out one of my favorite Silk colors, Tide Pool:

It’s a beautiful soft sea green.

I really had fun with this one, especially since it could only get better!

 

I enjoyed looking back at this sweet piece, and I hope you did too! It didn’t last long in my booth!

Can I get your help??

I once viewed my booth as just a place to sell what I make to share here on the blog. However, over the years, my booth has grown into so much more, and I’m taking steps to promote my local business (Lovely Things Furniture & Decor) much more seriously. One of those steps was to get it verified by Google, and now that I have…

This is where I need your help!

If you have visited my booth, whether you live locally or have stopped by from out of town, first of all THANK YOU!! If you were happy with your visit, would you mind giving my business a five star rating on Google? If so, you can do so HERE.

That will really help my local business, and I would be so incredibly appreciative! ❤️

I hope you all know how much I appreciate each and every one of you for showing up here to see what I’m up to each week. I couldn’t do this without you!

I’m still working on my booth space, but I’ll be back with some serious lamp inspo with these 12 thrifty lamp makeovers:

UPDATE: No need to wait…see them all HERE now!

XOXO,

 

 

 

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