Awesome-fied Desk and Mirrors

I hope that everybody had a chance to go and check out the Crafting With The Stars entries this round.  They were in a word INSANE!  Every.single.one of them.  This was my entry:

This is a little desk area in my 7 year old daughters room.  I found the desk at the DI for $5.00.  I peed a little when they told me that's how much it was......cause I was so excited!

It needed a TON of work though.

There were HUGE gouges in the top and the veneer was peeling off of the drawers.  But I thought she was Beautiful!!

Kind of sick right?

I started by peeling off the veneer on the places where is was chipping (the arch at the bottom of the drawers and the middle drawer)  Then I used drywall putty and covered the entire spot.  Once that was dry I lightly sanded the entire desk down.

And then I sanded the top more heavily with an electric sander to remove some of the scratches.  (don't forget to leave some character ladies!)

Once all of the sanding was finished I wiped it down with a wet rag and primed it with Kilz Spray Primer.  (It took 1 and 1/4 cans)  Then I went to bed.  (which is why there are no pics)

The color I used is my favorite red ever.  Its Krylon Banner Red.  It has more of a orange undertone than pink.  The best advice that I can give regarding spray paint is make sure (especially on the first coat) that its light.  There is no way that you should even attempt to cover everything in one or 2 coats,  you will just get a drippy mess.

Next comes the LOVE of my life (besides my hubs) Ralph Lauren Faux Glaze in Black Silk.  You can see my glazing technique {here}and {here}

Glazing is really easy to do on heavily carved pieces,  because there are lots of nooks and crannies to stick to.  A piece like this desk is a little harder because its almost 100% flat.  So I am going to show you my technique to glaze a flat surface.


Get your gear!  I use an old t shirt with 1/2 of it wet. My glaze and one of the $.99 crappy brushes from Home Depot.

Start by putting the glaze in whatever crack you do have.

 

now here is the tricky part.  Wipe it in the opposite direction from your edge ONLY!  No swirling, no wiping back and forth, no down the crack, nothin.  It will just pull all of your glaze out and you will have to start over.  Like this:

It will leave glaze in your minute crevice.  Here is another example:

For the drawers I spread a small amount of glaze on the whole surface (concentrating on places that had cracks and dings.)  Then I really lightly wipe it off.  (picture the way the the 4th grade lunchroom workers would wipe a table off)

I loved the tarnished brass handles but the drawers needed a little updating so I moved them from the middle of the drawer to the top.  Its a simple change but I think made a huge difference!

And there you go!

Now if you want to learn the {Anthropologie Acid Mirror Technique Click Here!}