Antique Desk: Duck Egg Blue and Coco

I found this desk at a thrift store literally buried under other items. It was manufactured by The Widdicomb Furniture Company in Grand Rapids, Michigan. 

The underside is date stamped from January 1901.

The desk was previously painted black which I liked. Except the paint was a bit rough on top, so I used my sander to sand it smooth.

I stained the top in Antique Walnut. I liked the color of the stain, but it ended up being a bit too blotchy, so I decided to paint the top instead. You might have noticed in the "before" photo that the drawer pull is missing from the center drawer. I put a temporary knob in place while I did the prep work.

Rather than sourcing a matching drawer pull, or instead buying three new pulls, I decided to use a knob that I had left over from a previous project. But since the original pull had two holes, and the replacement knob only needed one hole, I needed to fill in the existing holes and drill a new hole that in the center.

Here's a quick tutorial on how to fill in existing drawer holes. First place painter's tape on the back of the hole.

Next add a small amount of wood filler to a syringe. Using the syringe eliminates air bubbles which can cause the wood filler to crack after it dries. (I have a small supply of syringes that I ordered from Amazon and use them for various art projects including mixing small batches of custom paint colors.)

Place the syringe over the hole.

Then plunge the syringe and inject the wood filler into the holes.

Overfill the hole and then use a putty knife to smooth out the excess. Apply extra wood filler as needed to get good coverage and then let dry. Sand the surface smooth after it is completely dry. I used a drill to add a new hole in the center of the old holes.

You will see below in the after photos that the original holes are no longer detectable.

AFTER:

I painted the desk in Duck Egg Blue (now called Bliss; see note at bottom of this post).

The top is painted in Coco (now called Cocoa). I sealed the paint with soft clear wax.

Instead of distressing the paint I created a subtle aged finish using paint. I used small amounts of Graphite and Coco to create shadows and dimension.

Here's a closer view of the replacement drawer knob.

And a few close up photos to illustrate the shading created with paint:

I lightened up the drawer interiors with a couple of coats of Old Ochre. 

Thank you for stopping by The Black Sheep Shoppe today. A supply list is included below (affiliate links) for your convenience.

SUPPLY LIST (affiliate links):

Orbital Sander

Antique Walnut gel stain

Painters tape

Syringe

Wood filler

Sand paper

Jolie Matte Finish Paint Bliss (formerly Duck Egg Blue), Cocoa (formerly Coco), and Graphite for shading. (Dec 2019 note: the brand I used was Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, but there was a change in the distribution in the US. So now I use Jolie Matte Finish Paint which is the same formula, but the names of the colors have changed. Bonus there are some new colors, too.)