CHALK IT UP: A Malted Desk Makeover

(also known as the never ending project)

I scored this beautiful desk from my booth-mate Cassina last Thursday.

Hmm... that doesn't really seem all that long ago. When you work on a project every day maybe that's why it's seemed so daunting. That or because it's taken up the greater portion of my front porch and every time I've gone in or out of the house its been staring at me to complete it.

My son decided he wanted to help me paint the desk. For those of you who don't know, he's 4. I was excited that he wanted to help and that he was sharing an interest with me. I thought, Wow this could be awesome.

So, step one. We need to make some "Chalk it Up" paint - I wanted a color that was sort of malt colored. Maybe because it's so hot here I am secretly craving a malted milkshake!

Inspiration:

Insert 4 year old helper:

Mixing the paint after I add all the components of the "recipe" to my mason jar is my least favorite job. It takes A LOT of shaking. He was actually really good at this and if he plays his cards right... just might have himself a new job!

At last, after ample mixing, it was officially time to start painting!

Lately, I've lucked up in my projects where they have only needed one coat. This time, however, not the case. It went on very streaky so, I let out a big sigh, had my helper snag me another can of Diet Coke and went around this bad boy again.

As I was repainting... Tragedy struck.

My helper had been running around on the driveway and BOOM!

Had to pause on the painting to become Dr. Mom.

Once bandaids were adequately placed, he was back to his helpful self.

Much better results with coverage this time. Of course this table had LOTS of nooks and crannies so it caused me to spend a lot of time sitting on the floor.

My wonderful helper was eager to paint but, we've got some work to do to hone those painting skills. Instead he decided to drive his hot wheels around on the top while I worked on the bottom. No big deal I thought. He's happy. I'm working. Win-win.

I finally finished the 2nd coat only to stand up to find this...

Sheesh! Can I get a break?

My "helper" figured out how to make his cars leave doughnuts all over the top of the table. Love him. So, now my table was on to its third coat. Fortunately he only drove on the top! Whew!

Once that was finished it was finally on to my favorite part: Distressing.

I decided to go with 220 paper on my palm sander. I also decided to go a little easy on the distressing. The top I wanted nice and clean (I worked hard enough to get it that way, right?)

After sanding it where I wanted it. I called it the end to Day 1.

Pretty productive, despite the numerous set backs.

Big decision to make. Wax or not to wax. Poly or not to poly. Typically I'm a wax lover. But for some reason looking at this desk it told me not to wax it. I haven't poly'ed a project in a long time (I've only been waxing) So, I thought, what the heck.

First coat:

Didn't turn out too bad (now looking back) But, I wasn't thrilled with the streakiness of it. I wanted it to be nice and clean. Smooth. I let it dry all day... and later that evening...

I broke out the 400 grit paper and my palm sander and hit it again.

And I laid down a coat of poly again.

I should have taken more pictures of the clear coat layers just for humor purposes. The difference it made layer after layer, day after day, was so marginal you would laugh out loud to see my obsessiveness.

Yesterday, I decided ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! 6 coats strong... I was DONE! (Actually it took Cassina telling me to stop) haha!

So, here she is: