Yard Sale Prize

Leesa Osborne
by Leesa Osborne
1 Material
$35
4 Days
Easy
My daughter and I were out and about on a Saturday morning, we passed a yard sale and she said look Mom I think that's a nice desk for you to redo. I said it's probably expensive it looks to good to be Cheap. So we pulled over and got out. Sure enough this desk was in perfect condition. It was beautiful and marked $25. I walked around a few more minutes and got up the nerve to ask the lady at the yard sale if she'd take less. we left that day with a fabulous mid century desk for $15.
First thing I did was inspect it better for some damage. I just knew it had to have some damage somewhere. To my surprise there wasnt any, I never find great pieces without some damage and have to do a little repair. So I started with removing the beautiful discolored hardware. I then wiped it down really well with TSP. Left it to dry and came back with my sander and 150 grit sandpaper and roughed her up.
i had two gallons of paint made and yes you may see some of my other projects with this color I'm about to show you. They are both paint & primer in one from Walmart. One is deep artic night blue and the other is dark gray silk. I used them both on this piece. I began by mixing my homemade chalk paint in mason jars with 1/4 cup calcium carbonate in each jar and add warm water to give it the consistency of sour cream. Then mix my paint in the gallon really well and mix with my calcium carbonate mixture. Then started painting.
my first coat of paint. I painted 2--3 layers of the blue once it dried I went over it with the gray and dry brushed it on. Dry brushing just means putting a small I mean tiny amount of paint on your brush and start painting. Sometimes I even add a tiny bit of water with the dry brushing.
here is how it turned out.
cleaned up the original hardware and spray painted it silver along with the feet pegs on the legs of the desk.
Suggested materials:
  • Tsp sandpaper paint calcium carbonate spray paint   (Lowes)
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