The start of a new obsession....chalk paint and upcycling

You guys, I have to admit I have a serious problem lately. I can't seem to stop covering every single piece of old (or even not that old) furniture, shelf, or decorative item in my house with a new, fabulous coat of colorful chalk paint...I really think there should be support groups because it is such an addiction once you get started!


This project is my second major one, and let me tell you, this desk was falling apart when I bought it. I mean it needed to be glued, nailed, and just generally hammered back together...like everywhere.  BUT I only paid $9 for it, so I can't truly complain too much.  My daughter had been wanting a different desk in her room for quite some time, and this one fit the bill for the size and style we were looking for.  So, I thought, "Do a little damage repair, throw some chalk paint on it, and we're set!" 

Unfortunately, I forgot to snap a good photo of the desk in it's true dirty and disgusting glory before I started the job, but this is close to the beginning.  You should have seen the amount of gross inside those drawers...which I cleaned and slammed some pretty contact paper over asap. This picture below is just after I glued and nailed it all back into one usable piece along with cleaning it.  Also, I had painted black in the cracks and the edges, which I inevitably regretted later.  The grand plan had been to sand it in those areas to make the black show through and give a vintage look...but I quickly realized I may have gotten a little ahead of myself (because we all know being my second piece of furniture re-finishing, I must be an expert by now, right?).  Needless to say, the sanded spots got repainted over, and we kept it a nice, pretty solid finish instead.

After getting all of the chalk paint finished and a nice coat of polycrylic added (highly recommend this over the usual wax they say to use for chalk paint), I decided spray-painting the metal on the legs and the drawer pulls would be the more logical option than attempting the mess of hand-painting them. 

And....are you ready??? We have the finished product! So $15 and a few hours of work got us this little gem, which my daughter loves by the way! See why I love this whole chalk paint, up-cycling thing so much now?  I'm a total sucker for turning junk into something awesome and beautiful!  Next time I will be more detailed on the specs of everything I did and used, but this was sort of a spur of the moment thing this time around!