This French Provincial desk was so much fun to restore and paint! My friend gave me an inspiration picture she had found on Pinterest…
She wanted me to try and achieve this look with a desk that she had had for years but never got around to doing anything with.
I decided to strip the old paint off the fronts of the drawers, and I used Citristrip and sanded them very well, however, the wood that was underneath was a kind of mish mash of different woods, so when I applied the stain, the coverage wasn’t very even. However, I really liked the drawers looking so rustic and thankfully so did my friend!
The desk needed a few repairs, the biggest one was repairing one of the legs. Luckily, she had kept it so I just needed to glue and clamp for a couple of days to make sure it was properly secured.
I removed the hardware from the drawers and gave it a really good cleaning with TSP, which is a great all purpose cleaner. You can find this at any hardware store. Vinegar works very well too.
I applied 2-3 coats of Behr paint and primer in one in the color Gray Morning flat matte finish to give me that duck egg blue color. I sanded in between coats very well.
Because the top was going to get a lot of use, and it was a laminate, I used Benjamin Moore’s Advance paint in White Dove. I used a eggshell finish. First, I sanded well to get a bit of a tooth, then I applied Bin primer and then applied 3 coats of the paint. I finished by using Minwax polycrylic as well just in case. I don’t want that baby to chip!
I used acrylic paint Folk Art by Plaid in Wicker White to paint the foliage detail on both sides of the desk I did this freehand and just used a very fine brush to make some leaves with tendrils and vines.
I left the hardware alone and didn’t paint it. I liked the distressing that was already on there, and thought it went well with the rustic feel of the drawers.
I polyurethaned the entire piece with Minwax polycrylic except for the drawers which I used Johnson’s paste wax on.
My client is so happy with her new desk and I think I really nailed this one!
wild sparrow designs 
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