desk refinishing questions

By atrophie

ok so i got this desk for free off a curb (thanks to craigslist) in Menlo Park. i think it's completely awesome.

i patched, sanded, and primed it and now it looks like this:

(i still have to prime a little bit of the inside) as you can see, it's got a cool pull-out tablet.

1) what should i do to the tablet? i'm thinking a sand and a stain, since painting it would probably interfere with its usefulness.

2) what colours should i paint this desk? the only idea i've come up with is two-toned chocolate and black (painting the desktop and drawer fronts black). should i get a piece of glass cut to place over the desktop for protection?

3) what kind of hardware? i'm thinking a pull rather than a knob.

my room colour scheme (hopefully) will be lavender walls with accents of silver/grey, raspberry, and chocolate brown.

i hope to do an easy tutorial on this project when i finish :)

Tagged:
furniture Painting

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September 04, 2007

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Member since: 03/02/07
About: i'm back in the SF Bay Area, living with my parents who let me modify...

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Lorie09

September 05, 2007

In that case I think I would paint it black, the whole thing. I never think wood pieces painted brown looks good, I always feel like it should have just stayed wood (they did that on Trading Spaces all the time). I know in your case the top was damaged but I just have an aversion to painting wood brown, it's my pet peeve. You can certainly do what you want but you are asking for opinions. For pulls I would either go modern with long straight bar pulls (popular with Ikea lovers everywhere) or retro with cup pulls (popular with Restoration Hardware lovers everywhere). You can search both from Lowes.com if you don't know what I'm talking about. Good luck, I like the piece.

atrophie

September 05, 2007

i destroyed the original pulls getting them off the drawers, but that's ok because they weren't the look i was going for anyway.

my room is going to be mainly lavender and grey, muted shades. the raspberry is just supposed to be an accent colour that i don't yet know how to incorporate.

i know i want steel or nickel hardware...maybe i should go with a greyish-brown rather than a chocolate. more of a dark taupe. hmm.

i wasn't going to stain the tablet so that it looks wooden. i was either going to use an almost-black stain or some pretty colour that isn't brown.

Lorie09

September 05, 2007

I would keep this very simple. You seem to have a lot of colors going on in your room already. I'm trying to picture rasberry, lavender, silver, and chocolate brown together. I'd pick one of the colors in your room or go black or white and paint the whole thing the same color, including the pull out. I'd use the original knobs, they are cool, and paint them the same color as the desk. I used to have a super old desk that I adored. I bought it for $50 at an auction. I painted it a semigloss periwinkle about 2 shades darker than the walls in the room. It was super cool to have a periwinkle desk because no one does. I got compliments on it all the time. Unfortunately it didn't make the move and the legs broke beyond repair. I still miss that little desk.

tmgeorgo

September 04, 2007

1. I would paint the pull out tablet unless you can find a way to tie it in with some other wood stained element (like wood drawer pulls or something). Having just a single stained piece might not be symmetrical enough. Or, it might be cool. YOu could wait until you were done painting to decide.

2. I would paint the drawer fronts the same color as the rest of the desk, and only use a different color for the desktop. That tends to draw your focus to the work space and not the storage underneath. I like lighter tops myself, so I wouldn't use a black top. Maybe chocolate brown with a light grey top to match your room scheme?

3. I'd use brushed nickel pulls, or stained wood ones that match the pull out. They have lots of cool pulls in stock at the big box hardware stores and they don't cost very much.