Restoring My Daughter’s Vintage Painted Desk

This post is sponsored by Elmer’s.  All opinions are 100% my own.  See our full disclosure policy {here}.

If you’re a regular follower, then you know that we had a pretty terrible move from Georgia to North Carolina this summer {read the saga here}.  We’ve almost finished the claims process, and now I’m starting to work on the items that we didn’t have professionally repaired.

My daughter’s little vintage desk has been a staple in her bedroom since she was in first grade; it’s a find from the Cameron Antique Fair in Cameron, NC.  I think that it was originally part of a vanity set, because it’s a little shorter than a normal desk, but it’s just the right since for my tiny girl (she’s 12 now but very petite).

It got pretty banged up in our move:

Our movers didn’t wrap our furniture in blankets and so there were lots of rubs and chips, plus a big gouge on the top.

I have quite a few items of furniture that are in a similar state, so you can understand why jumped at the chance to work with Elmer’s–I’m going to be using A LOT of their products as I make my repairs!

They sent me two of their Carpenter’s® Color Change Wood Fillers to try; one that dries white and one that dries natural.  Both are sandable, paintable, and stainable, but since I was going to be giving this desk another coat of white paint, I chose the one that dries white.

This was a very easy project, but as with all DIY jobs, taking the time to prepare the surface is key.

I started by cleaning the desk off and letting it dry.

Next, I applied the filler with a putty knife and removed the excess.  Depending on how deep the damage is, you may need multiple coats.

When the filler turns white, it’s ready to sand.  I used 200 grit sandpaper and finished with 400. Of course, I repeated this process in several different places as I filled in the worst of the chips and gouges.

Next, I gave the desk two coats of white chalk paint.  Since I didn’t want to haul the desk downstairs, I used a brush instead of my paint sprayer.

The finished piece is immaculate–the damage is undetectable!

We are decorating the house a little early this year to be ready for a home tour; my daughter is a very dedicated dancer and so we use the Nutcracker Ballet theme to decorate her room.

You can see last year’s holiday decor {here} and {here}, and the rest of her room {here}.

In the meantime, I am enjoying how beautiful her desk area looks now.  I was so glad to be able to give this vintage piece new life!

Here’s a handy graphic to pin, recapping the steps I used:

I also recently used Elmer’s Carpenter’s® Wood Glue to build this DIY plate rack for my pantry and to assemble our pantry shelving; check the linked posts out for all the how-to’s.

As always, thanks for stopping by!

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Sources:

Desk and pink picture frame:  Vintage

White Chalky Paint

Silver wreath, apothecary jar: HomeGoods

Chandelier

Desk chair: IKEA

White shelf and Santa pillow:  handmade

Pink Christmas Trees: Hobby Lobby

Sugar Plum Fairy Nutcracker

Puffin In Bloom Books

Pointe Shoes:  my daughter’s never-ending supply 🙂