Handmade Desk Turned Mid Century Mod Desk

Art is beauty
by Art is beauty
You won't believe what this desk looks like now!
Come on over and see the full makeover of this handmade desk turned MOD MID CENTURY
A little stripper and a whole lot of sander transformed this boring old desk into a Mid Century styled BEAUTY
+Hometalk 
This desk was handmade. There are measurements and scribbles all over the back and on the


inside. Yet the painted brown and colonial hardware were not really doing anything for this piece.
I found this piece at my local Goodwill.


I know what you are thinking....BORING...or EW..


but you see the LEGS...those very simple legs are what caught my eye.


You see Mid Century Modern is SOOOO HUGE right now.


Everything I grew up around and honestly DESPISING


is becoming once again sought after.


I will be honest I was not really pleased with this trend at first.


Like I said..having grown up in a home filled with this I dreamt of


Frenchy, frilly, fun and delicate things.


But as I aged I came to appreciate lots of different styles.


Now I know why this stuff was so popular..


Its functional...stylish and fun in its own funky way.
I honestly had NO IDEA where I wanted to go with this piece.


I had just done a different style Mod desk that you can see HERE


Thoughts of Navy and Gold did once again pop into my head.


I let that stew while I got to work on the top.


I used stripper on the top and I will tell you, what came of looked like the


inside of a babies diaper..It was actually quite disgusting looking.


It took 2 attempts at stripper just to get it down to this.


I honestly swear the universe has some sort of bet on how much work I will


go through to strip off 40 odd years of paint. :)


It was time for the belt sander.


I knew a palm sander wasn't gonna cut it if 2 layers of stripper barely touched it.


Plus I needed to sand out some pretty deep GRAFFITI that had worked its way into the top.
After burning through one belt and putting on a new one, I finally got it down to this.


A couple passes with some higher grit sand paper and a tack cloth and I could get to staining.


I chose a provincial stain and put that on the top.


Once it was finally dry I protected the top with a Satin Poly.


I spray painted the leg with a brushed nickel spray paint.
Here is where the color comes in.


After researching lots of mod pieces one thing stood out.


YELLOW!


Now I don't very often paint things yellow.


But I knew this piece was calling for it.


I mixed up a custom yellow and put that down on the desk.


Then it was time to find hardware.


I wanted to find something that fit with the mod style.


That is hard to come by but I did find these fun diamond style knobs from


Target.
I think you will agree that this desk now fits with the style.


I truly am starting to crush on the mod pieces more and more.
Art is beauty
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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3 of 9 comments
  • Mary Davin Mary Davin on Jan 22, 2015
    Hey, that's my era - grew up with the stuff! I have some MCM pieces - my marital Danish Mod Walnut Bedroom set - now, sans husband. (sigh) I also kept his 5-drawer chest!
  • Barb in Texas Barb in Texas on Feb 22, 2017
    I can't get over that my mind refuses to believe those feet hold that desk up....that and what a nice job you did. I feel your pain about things you grew up with, my childhood home was full of heavy, dark colonial furniture and avocado green everything, to this day driving past an Ethan Allen store makes me shudder. :)
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