My DIY: Secretary Desk Rejuvenation

Some of you may know, I used to have a blog called [just had] A Bright Idea where I focused mostly on interior design & decor and some DIY-ing. When I started Style Oyster, I wanted to incorporate those things along with my love of fashion and all things, well, stylish. Unfortunately, leaving that blog for a new url posed it's challenges. I lost the readers I had acccumulated over the 6 months of having the blog as well as the content...but wait, that content is NOT lost! Thanks to Blogger, I was able to move it over to Style Oyster. However, it was a little outdated (the wording in some, etc.) and of course the pictures were all tagged with my JHABI logo (and a few with even older blog logos than that! I had some name change issues...) I am putting this paragraph here as a preface to these posts because even though they are from the past, they are still projects that took a long time and are dear to my heart and I didn't want to lose them when I officially take my old blog off the Internet. So I apologize to those of you who have followed me since [just had] A Bright Idea, as you will be experiencing some deja vu, but I know some of you are new and this may all be new content to you. So bear with me, I plan on posting these once a week until they are all on Style Oyster. Thank you so much, and I do hope you enjoy. xoxo

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I've been looking for the perfect secretary desk for. like. EVER.

Last week, I found this one on Craigslist:

Isn't she a beaut'? I know what you're thinking....she could use a little TLC. Let's just say the previous owner had no idea what she was doing when she painted it. The desk was obviously brown originally and she had spray-painted it white (a BIG furniture-painting no-no)...an absolute crappy job. She said she had been going for shabby chic - well, I think it was more shabby than chic.

Enter: ME.

I had the perfect vision of my secretary desk long before I bought this one. My desk had a stark white semi-glossy painted exterior with modern brushed nickel hardware. The inside cubby holes would perfectly fit my bill paying items & business products, i.e. calculator, checkbooks, business cards, etc.

Let me tell you step by step how I transformed this desk into a lovely piece anyone would be proud to own.

Step 1: I started by removing all of the hideous gold (and then spray-painted gold - yes spray-painted) old antique-y original hardware. I then took measurements of the holes to make sure I purchased hardware that would fit right into the holes.

Step 2: I sanded down the entire desk and drawer faces with 100-grit sand paper to make sure the primer would have a good surface to stick to. Thankfully, my handy hubby is a carpenter by trade, and I have all the tools handy you could ever need, so I had power sander to get the job done quickly.

Step 3: After sanding, I dusted off all the surfaces and got the primer ready. I used a paint roller made for cabinet and door painting. I put on a nice, even coat of primer and let it dry for a couple hours.

Step 4: Once the primer had dried, I excitedly went about putting on my first coat of white paint. I used Olympic Premium Semi-Gloss paint in Ultra White from Lowe's. I used the same type of paint roller for this step. I let the first coat dry overnight.

Step 5: I put on the second coat of white paint and let dry. For the cubbies, I thought it would be cute to use some of the same pink paint we had leftover from painting the walls in the room it was going in. I painted the outside of them white and then used the pink paint to carefully paint the insides with a foam brush. (That extra set of drawers and dresser you're seeing is a small dresser that is also in the same room...it had a previous bad white paint job and old hardware as well, so I got knobs to match, sanded the whole thing down and painted it as well - two birds with one stone!)

Step 6: I installed the new drawer hardware that I purchased at Lowe's. (One of the small drawers was a bit chipped off, but I didn't worry about fixing it just yet, may get hubby to fashion something eventually.)

Step 7: I moved the desk to her new place home and started loading her up! (Imagine my excitement when I found out she fit JUST perfectly on the wall right between the window trim hubby had installed when we first moved in!We're talking like a half-inch to spare. PERFECT.) Here she is, all finished: