One of the fun things about painting furniture is that once people become aware of what you do, they start bringing you their old furniture castoffs. That’s how we got this desk we made over with a coastal vibe for Vicki’s office.
Disclosure: The lovely folks at Weatherwood Stains sent us a can of their “Reclamation” stain to try out for free. All opinions are our own.
A friend of a friend was getting rid of this desk and called to ask if we wanted it. Vicki is in the process of making over a spare bedroom into an office and we thought the desk would be perfect.
The surface was a little beat up and one of the drawers needed new drawer stops, but other than that it was in great shape.
We decided to stain the top and paint the rest, so we started by sanding the top down to raw wood.
We used Weatherwood Stain “reclamation” for the top. Weatherwood is different from traditional stains. It makes the wood look weathered and aged, like it’s been sitting outside for years. This gave the desk top a bit of a driftwood look that we thought was perfect for a coastal theme.
We used clear wax to protect the top and you can see in this next picture that the wax really deepened the look of the stain.
We painted the body of the desk with Annie Sloan “Duck Egg Blue”. When that was dry, we did a wash with several different colors. A wash is just watered down paint that you brush on then wipe off with a rag. For the wash, we used Annie Sloan’s “French Linen”, “Paris Grey”, and “Old White”. We put a very small amount of each paint color in separate cups (just a couple tablespoons). We then had a 4th cup with just water in it. We would just dip our paintbrush into a tiny bit of paint and then dip it in the water, then brush it onto the desk. We used a rag to wipe off excess paint/water. We layered the colors, then even went over it with a bit of watered down “Duck Egg Blue” in places where we felt we got too much of the other colors.
We distressed the whole piece with a sanding block. The knobs are from Hobby Lobby and we also used our sanding block to distress the knobs. The entire piece was sealed with clear wax.
A few of our blogging friends also tried out Weatherwood Stains. You can check out their projects below.
Barn Wood Magnetic Key Holder With Shelf- Hawthorne & Main
DIY Curtain Rod- 2 Bees In A Pod
DIY Hand Painted Sign- Refresh Living
Coastal Desk Makeover- Canary Street Crafts
Stained Cabinet- The Crowned Goat
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Beautiful makeover ladies, it doesn’t even look like the same desk! I love the coastal blue mixed with the weathered top. It’s really pretty. Hugs for a happy day, CoCo
Thank you, CoCo!
This is really pretty! I love your tip about the tri-colour wash- definitely going to try that out 🙂
Thanks Erin! The pictures don’t really do it justice. All the different colors layered together looks really pretty :).
Hey Ladies – we love the desk makeover! The aged wood top is so pretty and the custom paint color on the bottom is gorgeous! Lucky Vicki 🙂
Thank you! I have to admit, halfway through the project I wasn’t really feeling it but by the time we put the new hardware on we were really happy with it :).
This turned out beautiful! I have a project in mind for that stain, I can’t wait to try it out. I love how you layered colors over the Duck Egg, it really has a great coastal feel now.
Thanks Ann! I’m glad we had a chance to work with the Weatherwood stain. It’s unlike any other stain we’ve used. Can’t wait to see what you do with it!
That is so beautiful! I love it!
The desk is lovely and I love the color. First visit to your blog. Have a great week!
Thanks, Marsha! So glad you stopped by :).
What a great transformation, Amy! I love that duck egg blue!! And those knobs are perfect!! Hope youre having a great week! xo
SOOOOO Pretty!!! And I have such an obsession going with wood that looks like that right now. This is a desk I’d love to have.
This is such a wonderful transformation, I love the color of blue and the contrast of the top make it perfect!!
I would love for you to stop by and share your post on Friday Features this week, now open for your links.
Hope you ave a nice weekend!
Karren
I love the look of this desk! The blue and the stain match perfectly!! You are so talented Amy! I wish we lived closer I have a few pieces I would love your help with!!
Beautiful transformation! Thank you so much for linking up with Thursday Favorite Things this week!
Your desk looks perfectly “aged”! I really like how the stain looks once you used wax on top of it – I am going to try that with my next project that I use this stain with. Perfect combination of colors!!
Thank you for sharing this wonderful transformation at the Thursday Favorite Things blog hop. Watch for your feature on Monday xo
So beautiful guys!! I LOVE me a good stained top with painted bottom, even better that it’s a Weatherwood stained top 🙂
It’s absolutely gorgeous! And I love the way the top turned out!!!
It’s hard to believe that’s even the same desk – I love the blue! Thanks for linking up at Talented Tuesday!
Holy cow, so so beautiful! I love the coastal vibe- it’s just perfect with Weatherwood! Thank you so much for trying us out. FYI- for your future projects, Miss Mustard Seed Wax and even cheap wax like Johnson & Johnson only slightly darken the stained wood color.
Thanks again for the amazing project!
xoxo
Becca
Amy and Vicki –
I still can’t get over how cute this desk makeover is! Thank you so much for sharing at Dream. Create. Inspire. Link! I can’t wait to see what you make this week!
Cat
What a lovely makeover! I would have never guessed that was the same piece of furniture. Great transformation!
Thanks Cynthia!
Very pretty!
I love the beachy look this stain gives to raw wood and have been looking for a driftwood like stain, for a coastal bedroom makeover myself. I think I just found it! Love the way your desk turned out I am definately going to have to give this brand a try!
I love that top’s stain color. What is it? Do you think it would look good next to a china blue?
It’s “reclamation” by Weatherwood stains. I do think it would look good! It’s a very neutral tone.