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Revived desk to Distressed French Postcard Desk (Part1)!

Michelle ~ M&M Embellishments
Dec 25, 2015
2 min read

I was lucky enough to find this solid wood desk at a fantastic price! It had good bones other than a small piece of wood missing. I have an idea that I am working on to fix that part, but I've made good progress with the rest.

This is the desk when I first got it - I hope you can see the finish that was on it. Not terrible, but really looked a tad dirty. First thing I did was add some L brackets to the legs to tighten them up a little.

Now for the chalk paint... First, I added a couple of layers of linen chalk paint. I first used a coat with a bit of water. I was experimenting a little and wiped some of that first layer off so the original finish just peaked through. Then, I decided to add another layer, but this time I didn't wipe any away. I finished this layer with just a few "smears" of chalk paint undiluted. This is hard to see in the pictures.

And then the fun .... the painting of the design started... inspired by French postcards, I pieced together different images to come up with the design. What do you think?

I wanted to have some fun with the sides of the drawer and did some French handwriting. I didn't like the side with the allover hand writing, so I added some wax and then a layer of dark wax, which I rubbed off. I am still not thrilled with the outcome, but it is on the inside and I wanted to see how the dark wax would look. I'm glad I tested there before I did that to the top, because that is not the hue I was going for. {these pictures will be shown in Part 2, so stay tuned!}

Next,. I put a layer of wax on top of the whole table, waited until it dried and the buffed it. I then did a little distressing to the whole top.