Furniture Makeover: Writing Desk Painted Black With Gold Accents

This writing desk is a classic. Painting it black and accenting the details in gold was the perfect makeover choice. 

I bought the desk at my favorite online auction and paid waaaayyy too much for it. But those details were calling my name and I got carried away. The price was $85 plus the auction fee. I know, call me crazy.

There were no markings on the desk and I couldn’t find a similar table online so I’m not sure when it was manufactured. I did find a “calling card” in the top drawer. Isn’t that cool? After looking at all the photos, maybe you can help me determine the age of the desk? 

Today is Furniture Fixer Upper Day, and you know what that means… five furniture makeovers. 

The piece on the top back of the desk was splintered beyond repair so we removed it. I found a detailed replacement piece in my wood stash.

This is how the desk looked after we replaced the piece. We had a bit of an issue shooting the nails through the wood.

A few came through the front of the bottom piece, and when we tried to remove the nails, we ended up making some deep gouges in the wood. More on that later.

The desk was in excellent condition and very well-made. It was an impressive and expensive piece in it’s day. The drawer pulls were top of the line too with a nail to hold the drop pull in place.

The round knobs have metal spikes that stick into the wood to keep the knobs from rotating and scratching the drawer fronts.

I always remove drawer knobs and pulls before painting furniture. Tip: cover the screw hole on the inside of the drawer with painter’s tape to keep your paint from seeping into the drawer.

Also tape around the back of the drawer fronts to ensure a nice paint line. In this case, instead of using one piece of tape and painting over the dovetailing on the sides, I chose to tape over the dovetailing so the great craftsmanship could still be seen.

The legs were on casters and I covered those with painters tape too. 

The wood on the back of the desk had several holes where the mirror was originally attached and I filled those with wood putty. Once the putty was dry I sanded it flush with the surface of the wood. 

Wow sometimes it takes a lot of work to get to the painting process. I chose the Caviar color from Dixie Belle for this project. It is one of my favorite colors. 

After applying the first coat of paint, I noticed that the area where my husband and I removed the nails looked a little rough, so I added wood putty filler to it. I then sanded it smooth after it dried. 

My original intention was to distress the paint but after thinking about it overnight I decided to spruce the desk up with a bit of gold paint. But the gold paint on the detailed piece was too stark so I painted over it.

That dovetailing is still in perfect condition. I couldn’t paint over it.

I cleaned the wheels with Howard’s Feed ‘n Wax. I use that stuff for all kinds of things. Spraying WD40 on the wheels didn’t appeal to me. 

Next, I spray-painted the drawer pulls with Rust-Oleum Metallic Gold.

The bright gold was too much against the black paint or at least that’s my opinion.

I dry brushed the black paint (Caviar, Dixie Belle) over the gold drawer knobs and pulls.

Then, I needed to do something about the wood applique on the bottom middle drawer.

I very, very, lightly dry brushed Dixie Belle Gold Gilding Wax over the applique.

The drawers needed to be fancied up too, and I lined them with scrapbook paper from my stash, and Ta-Da!

That’s the story. I love how this classic piece looks classy in black and gold.

As you can see I did dry brush the gold very lightly over the wood applique and the black paint very lightly over the gold knobs. 

It is always good to have the original drawer knobs. I first thought I would buy new ones, but why??

What do you think of the writing desk now. Did I do it proud or would you rather have the original wood finish. I admit I loved the wood but the legs and the top were really scratched up.

Leave a note for me if you have time before heading out on the Furniture Fixer Upper Tour. Just click the links below the “before” makeovers photo collage….

Furniture Fixer Upper Tour:
 Paint A Kids Table And Chair Set – Confessions of a Serial DIY’er
 How To Paint A Wood Chair – Salvaged Inspirations
 Piano Bench Makeover – My Repurposed Life
 How To Paint End Tables – A Ray Of Sunlight
 How To Paint A Classic Desk – Petticoat Junktion (you are here)

As always thanks for being here, Kathy