My New Pinterest Inspired Desk

I was inspired by Ashley at Domestic Imperfection when I saw her post for an Awesome Stenciled Paisley Table.

I knew I had to have one.  I scoured Craigslist, and found a $10 table that had been posted over a month ago.  On a whim, I emailed and asked if it was still available– it was.  Here is the before pic.  It doesn’t look like much, but I saw its potential.  

I talked my hubby into driving over the next morning on our way to have lunch with his family for Father’s Day.  When we got home that evening, I promptly got out the sander and had him help me position it on our workbench.  In no time, I had it stripped down to bare wood.  I dug around in my paint stash and found a partial can of Minwax Jacobean stain.   I put one of my husband’s old socks on my hand, and used it to stain the top of the table.  I let it dry for about an hour and then I put another coat of stain on.

I looked all over town and online for a large paisley stencil.  I loved the one Ashley used, but it was a whopping $54, and I wasn’t prepared to spend that much on a stencil.  I’ve never used a stencil on furniture, so that sounded a little daunting.  Lowe’s had some Martha Stewart brand stencils, but no paisley,  Michael’s also didn’t have a paisley. So armed with a 40% of coupon, I went to Hobby Lobby.  There was no paisley there, but I found a gorgeous large repeat pattern for $16.99, and my coupon brought it down to $11.03.  Whew, much better.

I had painted my laundry room in the last year, so I had some light blue wall paint left over.  I quickly read the stencil directions, which aren’t that clear.  So I read them again.  Something about a straight edge, and lining up the little arrows on the stencil for the repeat.  How hard could this be?  I used the edge of the table as my straight edge.  That worked great for the first three times, but then I quickly realized everything was slanting slightly down and left, which meant the right side of my table top was going to have a bald spot.  So I faked it, and moved the stencil over on the next one.  Then after I was finished with the top, I went back and filled in some of the blank areas with little curly cues here and there.  Every time I used the stencil, I hung it up and let it completely dry before I used it again.  It was a little time consuming, but worth the effort.  The one time I was impatient, I got paint on my table and had to scrape it off and clean up the mess.

I let the table top dry and began sanding the legs.  I didn’t sand them all the way to bare wood, basically just knocked the shine off with a palm sander and 220 grit sand paper.  I primed the legs and let them dry, then did several light coats of blue.  After drying overnight, I did another light sanding, and another light coat of blue.  Use thin, light coats of paint for the best results.  Don’t ask me why I know this, just take my word for it.  I did a light coat of spray on polyurethane over the stenciling, but I wasn’t happy with the results of the spray.  So after drying for 24 hours,  I lightly sanded with steel wool, and flipped the table over.  I sanded the “skirt” around the table and primed and painted it blue, to match the legs.

Aqua Spray Paint

After the legs and skirt were dry, I put the legs back on the table and had my husband help me flip it over and stand it up.  I used a damp rag to wipe off any excess dust from the table top, and then used a brush on polyurethane clear coat.  After two heavy coats, this is what my new desk looks like.

I absolutely love it.

Ashley has much better step by step directions, so I highly recommend using hers.

Cost breakdown

Craigslist Table $10

Hobby Lobby Stencil $11.03

Two cans of Painter’s Touch Aqua paint and 1 can of primer $12.57

Small can of polyurethane $7

Jacobean Stain – free

Leftover wall paint for stencil design – free

Total cost  $40.60