Little Harlequin Dresser

I finally got something FREE! Yeah! It was under off of CL. I called the guy and said I was coming over. I was a tad disappointed because the desk in the picture looked, well, normal size. In person it was miniature! So maybe I can make it for a little girl, I thought. (I mean c'mon, it was free). Or maybe a little person may want it. Whatever. Did I mention it was free??

Hmmmm,,,now what to do with it. I figured pink since it would most likely be for a girl. Then some white. But everyone does pink and white. Hey wait, I just got a new gray color from Martha Stewart paint that HD is discontinuing. I bought a gallon (12 bucks maybe?), divided it into 4 quart containers and had the paint guy tint each one a different color! Genius, I know right??
So pink and gray it is.






       






It needed a lot of filler. This baby was pretty dinged up.

I thought maybe I could refinish the top, but with the gray and pink combo, I didn't think it would look that great.
Plus this wood on top isn't all that great anyway.

So for the pink I used Behr Geranium mixed

with Bright white. What you see in the cup is

all I mixed for this desk. Thats Plaster of Paris in

the other cup. Thats all I used for my chalk paint for 

the pink. Step by step for the gray is below. 

So for the gray chalk paint. I use 2:1 ratio. (2 paint , 1 PP)
These little plastic cups are great for measuring.  I stir the PP
with a little hot water until the lumps disappear. 

I don't dump it in right away.
I add a little bit of paint to the mixture and stir. Kinda like tempering eggs!

Then I dump it in and use
my whisk (Big Lots) to mix well. It works great.

Mark my container and off we go! 

I know there are a ton of ways to do this out in blogland. But I have used this over and over again
with no issues. The hot water is really the key to break up the lumps and grit.  I have ASCP as well. And yes it is great paint. Is mine just as good??? Well, yes and no. I will say hers is easier, by a tad. But the finished result is almost identical. At least to me. If you are on a budget, then I like my way.

          The below picture shows what the first coat looks like. Nice and smooth and no lumps.

Ok. So not wanting to be left out, I jumped on the harlequin train for my desk top. Lemme just say after getting started, I wished I would have let that train leave the depot without me! Holy Hannah, what was I thinking???? Researching the stupid pattern took me about an hour. 

I did that Silver spoon  harlequin pattern calculator thing. 

Put in my dimensions and I got 3 rows, 15 columns of 6"X 3" diamonds. No problemo, right? 

Are you counting???? Thats 45 diamonds!

 Don't even ask me how I did this. Actually once I got going, it was pretty easy. Just connect the dots. It took me quite awhile to
draw all this out. I was shocked when all the lines actually lined up!

If you put a dot of tape on the color you are painting before you start, it keeps you from getting "confused".



Lord have mercy. See that roll of tape? It was almost full when I started. In retrospect, I probably should have painted the top pink, being that it's lighter. But I knew I didn't have enough. I had to paint the pink in two parts because of the tape overlapping other diamonds.

                                  Ok. So here is the little princess all done and waxed. 

In hind sight, I should have filled in the pull holes and gotten new hardware. 

These pulls are 4 1/4". Not a standard size. The dreaded double knob drawer!! 

 I wiped on a metallic glaze haphazardly to give it a 

little shimmer and antique-y sort of look.

 I'm having a very difficult time finding a chair to go with this desk. The opening is only 

19" high. I need a "mini-me" chair! 

 I spray painted the handles a glossy white. Not really diggin' them, but

a custom order of this size would be a little pricey. 

Note to self,,,"fill in the holes before painting!!"