Easy Painted Sewing Table Redo

I picked up this amazing vintage sewing desk at my local goodwill last spring (when they were having a huge donated furniture sale) for a mere $6.50. I had been looking for one for a couple of months and knew that if I was patient the right deal would come along. I brought it home and set my sewing machine up. Then I didn’t give it another thought until a couple of weeks ago. The fall cleaning bug hit and I ended up rearranging my craft room and moving this awesome sewing desk out of the back corner and into a front and center position.

Immediately I knew it was time to give this beauty a makeover. I started by removing the handles from the front and while doing that I realized that I had never taken all the old mechanics out from the inside. I won’t ever put my machine inside (I wish it would fit!) so I decided to remove them for good. I haven’t decided what kind of secret things I’ll hide in there in the future but I’m sure I’ll think of something. After the hardware was taken off I gave the whole thing a good wipe down to get all the dust and grime off of it and get it ready for paint. I decided to use the paint I had originally picked for our hutch (key largo by Clark and Kensington). This color makes my heart so happy, I joked about wanting to paint my whole life this color. I decided to leave the top alone (nightmare visions of scratched paint) and just started painting the bottom. I also figured that I would add some interest by leaving the drawer frames unpainted and do a simple dry brush over the basket weave insets. This added such a fun contrast and really helped to create a fun one of a kind piece. I ended up having to do three coats of paint to get it to the level of coverage and color that I was looking for.

The last decision that had to be made was color choice for the hardware. I am a fly by the seat of my pants kind of girl, so every decision I make during projects like this is done as it arises. I thought about using a dark paint to tie in with the dark wood pieces or a bright white to add contrast. I thought about a darker shade of turquoise but finally settled on … Just leaving them alone! I know it sounds crazy, but I just couldn’t come up with anything I liked better and when I put them back on I really liked how they blended in and didn’t take any attention away from the paint.

Once all the paint had dried I set my machine back up. I will probably sand and restain the top of the desk but for now it is perfect. I will probably attempt a sewing machine cover (someday) but in the meantime I don’t mind the look of the white. So what do you think? Does this make your heart happy too or are you cringing because I painted a perfectly good vintage wood piece?