Abstract Geometric Desk

About six or seven years ago I snagged up a desk that my parents were getting rid of because I didn't have a desk and I was a broke college student, so why not!  It was a desk that my parents had had for years, potentially handed down from another relative, that my dad had tried to refinish.  Here's the thing about my dad, he fancies himself a handy-man, but he's not so good with the details.  I love him to death, but his staining and polyurethane-ing skills leave something to be desired.

Anyway, so we had this desk that really wasn't our style and needed a facelift.  I had hopes to do an abstract geometric pattern on the top in various stain colors and then refinish the rest of the desk, changing the hardware, and painting the base in a neutral off-white.  That was the plan, but as you can see that's not what happened...

Instead we now have a wild, crazy-bright desk with a abstract geometric pattern and new hardware (and an unchanged base).  It's certainly vibrant and took a little getting used to, but in the end I think it offers a nice pop of color(s) to the space.  And I have to admit, I'm kind of impressed with my taping and painting skills on this one!

So, what led to the change in plan?  This...

Once I actually took the pile of Rob Jones poster off the desk and looked at it more closely I realized that there was no way I was going to be able to stain this desk.  It had been sanded all the way through to the particle board in a couple spots and the whole top was so uneven that it was in need of some extensive sanding that would only make it more visually unappealing.  So painting the top became the only option.  I flipped my idea around and decided on a painted geometric top with a stained base.  But then Antoine brought me back to reality and told me I should probably just leave the base alone since I was already looking at a ton of work on the top.  He's so wise! 

We picked out a couple of Pantone Universe colors at Lowe's, they were having a buy one, buy one sale on sample paints so they were super cheap!

I sanded the top down and evened it out as best I could.  The sanding took a while, this photo was taken about half way through the sanding process.

Then I created an abstract geometric pattern using a yard stick and a pencil and went to masking off the triangles and painting.

Almost done with the first half of the table...I pulled a couple of late-nights (we're talking 1am and 2am), many of which were nights that I had to go to work the next morning.  Sometimes I'm not so smart!

As far as hardware went, it took me forever to decide what I liked best, mainly because the options were so horrible because of the irregular size of the hardware.  In the end, it was mostly the price of these handles that won me over...but I liked the look of them too!

I still need to put a couple layers of matte poly on top, but here's the nearly-finished desk.  In the end I'm so glad that I followed Antoine's advice and left the base part alone.  That would have been a nightmare to sand off the old poly and re-stain it!  It's a little bright and wild, and it messes with your eyes a little bit, but I like it!  It's definitely more exciting and fits out style better than it originally did!