My Decopatch Writing Desk

Well, it didn’t take half as long as I expected, probably because I was all enthusiastic and gung ho, but my “new” writing table is in situ, in use and I am sooooooo chuffed.

The first thing I decided to do was paint the legs and drawer of my £3 charity shop table a deep turquoise, using left over emulsion paint from my spare room.

I didn’t do any sanding down, which probably isn’t the most professional thing to do, but I have always said I am an impatient crafter, but lesson learned, if I do anything like it again, I will sand it to give the paint something to adhere to.

And, despite now having a craft room, I still ended up performing this transformation in the lounge! Doh.

It took three good coats of paint to cover the dark wood of the table, which lead me to paint the rest of the table with some spare white paint, because I reckoned the dark wood would make the Decopatch papers I had ordered look darker than I wanted.

I thought I had ordered plenty of Decopatch papers, however, some the colours didn’t work.  I started on the sides and it was going pretty OK, but when it came to the top I began to run out of all the small print/patterned designs I had.

Now, my gut feeling was to stop there and order some more papers of the same designs to the ones used on the sides, but the impatient me decided to carry on regardless introducing a few colours that weren't on the sides …… I think I got away with it, and to be honest, no one will notice other than me and on this occasion I really don’t think it’s going to mither me, as sometimes happens on other projects.

However, I knew I had to be patient and let the papers and PVA dry out properly for at least 24 hours to avoid any chance of a disaster before I started to satin varnish the whole thing.

Fortunately the Wilko Quick Dry Satin varnish does exactly what it says on the tin and dries quickly, so the six/seven layers I added didn’t really take that long.  I varnished the Decopatched areas first, followed by the legs and drawer.

I removed the black paint on the knob and sprayed it with gold paint, although I hope to replace it with a small, faceted glass one when I can find one. 

All I needed to do then was tighten the screws holding the legs a bit and voila, a new desk to sit at while enjoying the view while I am blogging.  I love it, the colours really make a rather plain and boring area zing!  Now……. what can I Decopatch next?