Chalk Paint Desk Redo

My son has been wanting a desk in his room for a while now, so when we saw this beauty at a garage sale a couple of weeks ago we snatched it up. As you can see, it needed a little love before we wanted to put it in its new home.  

I like quick and easy when it comes to my projects, which must be why the idea of using chalk paint on furniture is so appealing to me. With chalk paint you don't have to strip the furniture, or sand it, or prepare it in any way besides wiping the dust, etc. off of it. 

I have a couple big pieces of furniture in my house that I have been considering using this technique to redo, but I'm a bit wimpy about jumping right into those and wanted to try a couple of smaller items first. 

So, this desk became my latest experiment! 

Luckily I had an assistant for this project. Since it was for him, my teen-aged son got to be part of the redoing.

First we took off the old hardware and wiped everything down well. Then we mixed up some homemade chalk paint and got to work.

Here's the recipe we used (found here):

3 tbsp warm water

5 tbsp plaster of paris

2 cups latex paint

We just mixed the warm water with the plaster of paris and then stirred in the paint. 

It took us about three coats of paint to get the desk fully covered. Then we were patient and left it overnight to dry completely.

The next step was the hardest for us. When you use chalk paint you need to protect it with something, otherwise the paint will chip off easier than it would with regular paint. The popular thing to use with chalk paint is a soft wax. 

I had never used wax before so wasn't exactly sure what the best method was. I found some basic instructions  here. 

 

We just used some rags to wipe on a thin layer of wax, rubbing it in with a circular motion. After letting is sit a few minutes we took other rags and wiped off the extra wax, then buffed it up till it shined. This step did take a little extra elbow grease, so I was happy that my son was helping!

After we were satisfied with our layer of wax we left it for a bit for the wax to harden up. Then we attached some new hardware to the desk and it was ready to go.

Hopefully his snazzy new desk will help motivate my son to keep up on his homework better when school starts up again in the fall!