My desk was too small so....

..... I found a new one

This is the desk that I have been using for a while, it was an old dressing table that I found in one of the out buildings which I upcycled with a coat of paint and new hare drawer knobs. I loved the shape of this, the colour and the hares, but it was far too small and no matter what I did the drawers were always sticking.

So I was on the look out for a new piece of furniture I could upcycle and use as my desk. I love to go and check out whats available at local charity shops with my favourites being Magpie in Banchory and Inverurie. I found my new desk at Magpie in Banchory and it cost just £45, it has plenty of drawers and being solid pine it was sturdy and ideal for my purpose and for me to upcycle as I hated the dark antique varnish it was covered in.

This is quite a large piece of furniture and at first I thought it would be too much to paint it the same colour as the smaller desk. Then I thought to myself "hey it's just paint, if I don't like it I can paint it again!" ......where had my confidence in colour gone?

I mixed my own chalk paint, looked at various recipes on the internet for this and tried a couple of different ones, but this is the one I prefer.

Chalk Paint Recipe 

1 part Calcium Carbonate (I purchased mine through Amazon)
2 parts paint (any paint, I used Silk Emulsion by Crown and the colour is So Sweet)

Mix together well then paint

I gave the desk and drawers 2 coats of paint.
I had thought about buying new drawer knobs for this but decided I really didn't want to spend any more money and would complete this project with only things that I already had. I mixed a small amount of chalk paint using black acrylic and Calcium Carbonate and painted the knobs and the bun feet on the desk.

I didn't want the drawer knobs to be plain black so a quick search through my craft stash and I found this script paper in my Hot off the Press - Paper Pizazz Heritage book. I cut circles from the paper slightly smaller then the knobs and stuck the paper down with PVA glue.

Once the glue was dry I gave the knobs a couple of coats of quick drying acrylic satin varnish.

As I didn't have enough wax, but had plenty of acrylic varnish I gave the desk and drawers a couple of coats of varnish to seal them. I can always give the desk a wax in future when I buy some more wax.
My finished desk and I love the colour :)

I also have 2 old paint covered chairs, one of which I use when I'm on my computer. These were given to us by a friend so didn't cost anything but were in need of being brightened up a little.

I wanted one of the chairs to match my desk so gave it a couple of coats of the same paint that I used on my desk. I also painted the bottom of the legs black to match the desks bun feet.

As a final little touch I cut 3 circles from the script paper and stuck these to the back of the chair before giving it a couple of coats of varnish.

The completed desk and chair

I love it and can't wait to be sitting there working on my computer.

I'm working on the other chair and will post a photo of this soon as this is going to be a little different. Just because they are a pair of chairs doesn't mean they have to be exactly the same :)

I will also be using the hare knobs (from my old desk) on another project soon