The Royal Affair: A Purple & Gold Desk Makeover

Happy New year my friends! December flew by like no other month. It was here and then all of a sudden it was Christmas and then New Years and yeah, not much was accomplished blog wise.

But I’m back and I have a royal treat for you today! I was asked to redo a desk as a Christmas gift for a fun and spunky 12 year old and the biggest request was that it had to be purple. Here’s what it looked like before, without the legs attached.

I chose a purple called “Lavender” from Rustoleum’s Chalked paint line to use on the desk.

The base needed some minor repair where the leg attached. Some wood glue, clamps and a screw fixed that problem fairly quickly. The desk itself was in fairly good shape and did not need any prep other than a light sand. The drawers needed a bit more attention, the veneer was peeling in spots and there some pretty deep nicks all over. Depending on where the veneer was lifting, I either took some off or else glued some back down in other spots. I used wood filler to fill in where needed and then sanded it down smooth once it was dried.

This is where the struggle happened. I painted the desk with two coats of Lavender, sanding in between coats. Once it dried, I hated it. Legit hated it. I let it sit like that for a couple of weeks, thinking if I walked away and came back to it I would like it. Didn’t happen. I hopped on Pinterest and browsed for hours looking for inspiration to make this desk look prettier. Nada, nothing. So, I thought I would try white washing around the edges to make it stand out a bit.

That crashed and burned even worse.

While I was waiting for lighting to strike with inspiration I did this:

THIS I loved. The handles were pretty blah to start with and I wasn’t sure I even wanted to use them. I figured if the gold didn’t work out, then I’d hunt some new ones down. Thankfully, the gold worked.

So back to the white washed barney purple hot mess I was dealing with… At the 11th hour, I knew the color had to go. Out came the sanding block and off went the nightmare. With Lavender out on 3rd, Eleanore was up to the plate. Eleanore is Benjamin Moore’s deep eggplant purple that I knew would pair perfectly with my newly gold finished handles and legs. And boy did it ever! Two coats of paint and she was ready to be dressed with her glitz.

And this is now my current favourite color combo.

Isn’t she a beaut! The gold really made the detail on the handles pop, whereas before they were a little lost and dirty looking.

Now I just want to paint all the things purple and gold!