Life: After Drywall.

Yeah, Yeah I know. You’ve heard me bitch and moan about this topic for months. But seriously. Life after drywall…whaaaat do I even do with myself. I’m so used to being covered in dust, that I may or may not have panicked a little by being so…clean. There are serious withdrawals from doing something so labor intensive.

Here are the withdrawal symptoms to expect:

Fidgeting…Lots of it. Toe tapping. Finger tapping. Nail biting. Cider drinking. More bitching and complaining. Organizing random things like the junk on the counter. Wearing one flip flop around the house, because…who knows. Flexing in front of the mirror to make sure you haven’t lost your drywalling muscles. Making brownies as healthy as you possibly can so that you can eat half of the pan without guilt. Oh, and getting your ass back to the gym…well, once.

These After Drywall symptoms had me do something crazy. It’s like I wanted to be dirty again, wearing a face mask and goggles, because…I decided to flip some furniture.

This is where I’ve started. Check out this proper teacher desk purchased for a smokin’ deal, thanks to my sister in law who knows I love old junk:)

Was it good enough to use? Well of course. It even came with some art supplies in the drawers. But I’ll be damned if I just use it without…eh, tweaking it a bit. Remember those sanders I purchased awhile back? Well they have served me well in my furniture flip nonsense. Alright, the belt sander is a bit overkill. I haven’t actually used it on furniture…but I did sand the shit out of those walls! HA. Weeks later I can laugh about it.

OMG. I know right? You’re dying to ask, “How did you get that desk to look so DAMN good?” Well, my dears…here’s how.

Step 1: Sand that Shit

Working with veneer is tedious, but somehow still versatile. Your choices:

1) chalk paint right over the top of the finish or

2) Make it difficult and sand down the veneer to the wood grain. Your choice. My choice was #2. Why? Because I like dust. Be extremely careful here. I used a 120 and 220 grit sand paper on the Orbital and Corner Cat sanders.

*Tip: Adjust your sandpaper grit (the higher the number the finer the grain, the lower the number, the rougher it is). Working on a piece like this requires a fine grain, hence the 220 grit.

*Caution: Be careful not to be too aggressive with your sanders. Don’t push too hard, on a veneer piece, you could strip the wood grain down to…well, down to whatever wood was used to create the desk, which doesn’t have a grain, and is super lame.

Step 2: Chalk paint DIY

Make your chalk paint! I Pinterested a great recipe. Ordered Calcium Carbonate on eBay, and found a marked down can of paint at Lowes. Here’s the website that has a variety of recipes to use. In my opinion, using calcium carbonate mixed with acrylic paint worked like a charm.

Step 3: Wipe ‘er down

Wipe and wax! Clean the desk off using a dry cotton cloth. I used a torn up T-shirt to apply. Worked like a perfectly, though Mike has one less shirt. Unfortunate.

Step 4: Wax the body

I started by using a white wax on the body of the desk as I was going for a limed, beachy look. This was followed up by Minwax’s “Natural” wax to seal everything off without changing the color of the sanded wood.

As you can see, white wax and a dirty rag.

To lime, or not to lime.

Voila.

Step 4: Wax the desk top

Let me preface this by saying I love grey. No, not because it’s trendy. But because I like it…just ask Mike. I have a closet of grey thrifted sweaters he has teased me about for years. Anyway I waxed the top of the desk with white wax and antiquing wax…why? Antiquing wax brings out the white wax. Weird I know.

Step 5: Sand the chalk painted surfaces

Use your 22o grit on your Corner Cat. This makes it smoooooth. Like a babies butt.