Chalk Painted Desk

Are you stuck on a project and need an idea for an upcycled desk fast? Look no further than this chalk painted desk! Chalk paint is a simple, affordable, and incredibly versatile material that can be used to revive any piece of furniture.

In this blog post, we’ll go over the basics of how to transform an old desk into something modern and chic. We’ll cover everything from prepping the desk for paint, to creating stained wood legs for extra flair.

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See more AFTER photos below these printable instructions!

Chalk Painted Desk

Print

Materials

• Krud Kutter
• 220 grit sandpaper
• Wood Filler
• Tack cloth for prepping
• Kwikwood
• Chemical stripper
• Dixie Belle BOSS Stain Blocking Primer – Clear
• Tape
• Pre-taped plastic
• Country Chic Paint in Simplicity
• Country Chic Paint in Dark Roast
• Country Chic Paint in Lazy Linen
• Country Chic Paint in Sunday Tea
• Varathane Polyurethane Waterbased Topcoat

Instructions

1. Prep table by cleaning, wood filling, scuff sanding, vacuuming, wiping down, priming for bleed through, and taping off areas.
2. Strip table legs with chemical stripper.
3. Prime to prevent bleed through.
4. Mix paint colors of your choice.
5. Wrap and tape legs with paper and plastic to prevent overspray.
6. Brush or spray chalk paint.
7. Distress edges of table with sandpaper.
8. Coat 3 coats of topcoat to protect the wood and paint finish.

Recommended Products

As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.

• 
  Dixie Belle Boss Clear Primer
• 
  Chalk Style Paint
• 
  Varathane Waterbased Polyurethane

Table of Contents

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More Before and After Makeovers

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Click any of these “before” photos below to view the “after” of that makeover.

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I love this table makeover. I honestly wasn’t sure about this style before I gave it a makeover, and now I can’t get enough of it. Let’s dive into how we went from this before photo, to the beautiful gray chalk painted desk it is now.

Supplies Used for Chalk Painted Desk

• Krud Kutter
• 220 grit sandpaper
• Wood Filler
• Tack cloth for prepping
• Kwikwood
• Chemical stripper
• Dixie Belle BOSS Stain Blocking Primer – Clear
• Tape
• Pre-taped plastic
• Country Chic Paint in Simplicity, Dark Roast, Lazy Linen and Sunday Tea
• Varathane Polyurethane Waterbased Topcoat

Grab our list of the top 10 supplies you need when painting furniture.

Preparing Furniture for Paint

We prepped the top of the table the way we prep every one of our pieces of furniture.

Including cleaning, wood filling, scuff sanding, vacuuming, wiping down, priming for bleed through, and taping off areas of the table.

Learn How to Prepare Furniture For Painting.

how to strip table legs

Then, I removed the finish on the legs. There are a few ways to remove the finish, but we decided to use chemical stripper. Here is how to refinish wood table legs to guide you.

While I waited for the chemical stripper to do its thing, I kept prepping the table for the rest of the makeover.

How to Repair Wood with Kwikwood

A small piece of detail was missing from the front of the table, so I molded a small amount of Kwikwood to recreate the detail.

Kwikwood is an epoxy that comes in a small tube. You just cut the amount you need from the roll, and then knead it together with your fingers until it all becomes one solid color.

Once it’s kneaded together, you have about 15 minutes to work with it before it starts to harden rock hard. It dries in an hour and then can be drilled into, sanded and painted, along with some other things. It worked really really well for this application of recreating the missing detail.

It also works really well for filling in old hardware holes, and fixing small chips in veneer.

Learn more about how to use KwikWood here, and learn more about how it compares to other wood fillers in this post on the best wood filler for furniture.

Priming Furniture

Over the years I’ve learned to always prime a piece of furniture for bleed through. Even if I don’t use a light color of paint.

Bleed through is caused by a lot of things, but it results in splotches and stains that come through paint, and literally will not go away, no matter how many coats of paint you paint over it.

Bleed through sometimes even waits to show up until after you have finished everything, and months go by. So I always always always prime to prevent bleed through.

This time I used Dixie Belle’s BOSS stain blocking primer. It works really really well and is easy to use. I just brush it on after everything is prepped and before I paint on any paint. It comes in clear or white. Here are the best primers to stop tannin bleed you can use.

Mixing Paint Colors

Once the repair was made, and all the prep work for paint was complete, I mixed a few different Country Chic Paint colors together.

I really wanted a light gray color, but I didn’t have enough of the Lazy Linen (which is a really pretty light gray shade). So I improvised with a new mix of paint colors.

First I mixed a tiny amount of Dark Roast (deep brown) with a healthy amount of Simplicity (white). It came out to a really pretty warm gray. Then I added in the small leftovers that I had of Lazy Linen and Sunday Tea (another light warm natural gray).

Mixing paints is such a great way to create new colors AND use up the small amount of paint that is always leftover after a project or two.

If you aren’t familiar with mixing colors, or you’re scared to mess up, start with a teaspoon or two of the paint to make a sample of what it will become when mixed.

Check out my honest and detailed Country Chic Paint review here for more on this paint!

Spraying Chalk Style Paint onto Furniture

I personally love to use a paint sprayer to paint our pieces of furniture. I love the professional finish it creates, and I love how much faster it is than a paint brush.

If you don’t want to spray the chalk paint on, here is how to chalk paint furniture to show you how to apply chalk paint with a paintbrush. Plus, here are the the best paint brushes for painting furniture you can use.

But if you do want to spray your chalk paint on, here is all about painting furniture with a sprayer. And here are the best HVLP paint sprayers for furniture if you want to buy a sprayer.

You can spray a lot of different types of paint in these paint sprayers, and chalk style paint is definitely one that I use the most! Here’s how to spray paint a dresser with chalk paint to show you the process of spraying chalk paint.

How to Protect from OverSpray

It is super important to cover anything you don’t want paint on, because the paint sprayers have over spray that tends to get on anything you don’t cover.

So, I wrapped the legs up in paper and plastic, and taped off the inside of the drawers with tape and plastic. You can see more about how to prevent overspray when painting furniture here.

Distressing Chalk Paint

Once the few coats of paint were on the top of the table, and completely dry, I used 220 grit sandpaper to distress the edges of the table. This step was optional.

If you like the distressed look, learn more about distressing furniture techniques here.

Topcoating Furniture

Then I wiped off the paint dust and removed the plastic and paper from the legs.

The whole entire desk, along with the legs got 3 coats of our favorite topcoat to protect the wood and paint finish. Here is how to apply polycrylic to painted furniture, and if you have a sprayer, here is how to spray polyurethane. (This is my favorite way to seal chalk paint!)

It looks like they were stained, but that is just the natural wood. If your wood isn’t dark, you can always use this technique on how to stain wood darker.

And then we finished off the table with new hardware from D Lawless Hardware.

I couldn’t be more happy with the way this table turned out, and apparently, I’m not the only one! It sold within a few days to an amazing customer who has supported our little family business for years now!

When this desk gets to her, we both will be living in different states than where we were when we first met! How cool is that! If you want to know how to make money painting furniture, check out this post to learn more.

And for more desk makeover inspiration, here are painted desk ideas and desk paint color ideas. For more painting furniture ideas using chalk paint, here’s chalk painted furniture.

If you like how this gray desk turned out, you can also check out these grey painted dresser ideas to try on your dresser.

Anyway, if you found this tutorial helpful at all, please pin it and share it with your friends on your favorite social media! I greatly appreciate it, friends!!

More Resources

• Laminate Desk Makeover
• Painting a Desk Black
• Wax For Chalk Paint: Is It The Right Choice For Your Furniture?
• 5 Chalk Paint Problems and How to Fix Them
• Rustoleum Chalk Paint Review

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