Fun Desktop

Roberta
by Roberta
9 Materials
$50.
4 Hours
Medium

So many people are working from home and homeschooling.... So why not make it a little more fun with a cool desk?

So I started off with just a typical desk that you can pick up at a thrift store or even Marketplace. It was solid wood, but had seen better days.

You can see by the top that it had some pretty significant scratches also. Even if I sanded most likely they would have shown up. Then I got thinking... Why not make it part of the design?

I started off by cleaning the surface well with a mix of denatured alcohol and water. Then wiped the residue off with a clean rag. Then I applied a thin layer of Retique It liquid wood in Gray. This awesome stuff has 60% of recycled wood so it makes it where you are able to stain it. All I did was mix it up really well and then paint right on with a paintbrush.

After my liquid wood had dried thoroughly (about 15 minutes) I grabbed this water-based stain in Weathered wood. It was the perfect gray for my base coat.

It is super easy to use. Apply it with a clean rag. Plus it takes hardly any time to dry since it's water based versus typical stain that is oil based. (Note: you can even use this as glaze over painted furniture)

After the stain dried, I put a thin coat of polyacrylic over it. This will keep my next step from absorbing into the liquid wood and stain.

I wanted a huge contrast from the gray underneath so I used a white glaze. (You can make your own glaze with a glaze medium and paint mix or you can mix paint and Flotrol)

I applied the glaze pretty heavy without letting it drip all over the place.

Then the fun part! I took a wood graining tool and just dragged across the wet glaze leaving a cool wood looking pattern.

You can put as much or as little as you want. The good thing is if you don't like it you can paint right over it while it's wet and do it again. Plus with this technique you can use almost any color.

After it dried thoroughly I put one more coat of polyacrylic just for extra protection. Then painted the rest of the desk in Midnight Black furniture paint.

Doesn't the top look cool?

It really came out better than I had expected. I love the contrast with the light and the dark. A little fun on something normally traditional. Plus I was able to have everything done in one day. Drying times were cut drastically by using water-based products.

The price of this project will very depending if you have to buy all of the supplies. I'll put the estimated cost on how much supplies you would use.

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Frequently asked questions
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3 of 4 questions
  • Betty Mcilwain Betty Mcilwain on Mar 08, 2021

    What is in the frame cannot see it close up to tell looks like rags so cute

  • Linda Lefforge Linda Lefforge on Dec 20, 2022

    where do you buy these products?

  • Ellen Ellen on Dec 27, 2022

    What type of a roller do you use when rolling on the chalk paint?

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