Celebrate Green Blog

by Lynn

I ended my last office makeover piece saying, “Next up, the desk!”

Well, like so many of my DIY projects, the desk do-over turned into quite the saga.

I admit my usual approach with these things is to leap before I look—aim, fire, shoot.

In other words, I wing it.

Sometimes that works out just fine. Sometimes it doesn’t. The desk is a great example of where it didn’t, but I learned something absolutely mind-blowing in the process.

What I learned will be the subject of the next post in the series, but for now…

My desk actually is a banquet table. I like the height and the space it provides so there really was no reason to purchase a new one. What I didn’t like was its dingy brown top and brown metal legs. I thought of disguising the legs and mess under it with a fabric “skirt,” around the outside, but I wanted a more updated look in the office—cheerful whimsy with a touch of glitz. (I’ve been watching too much HGTV.)

So I decided to paint the table. I knew from prior painting projects that I needed to tape off the edge which is plastic (and deal with that later if I chose to), and sand the shine off the laminate. Mission accomplished in no time flat.

Next I figured I’d slap on some primer before the main color. This is where things went terribly wrong. I couldn’t get the primer to go on in an even coat. I tried two and it looked like this:

Uh oh. This was not going to work. It just didn’t feel right. I figured I’d have to put three or more coats of paint on to hopefully cover up the brown since the primer wasn’t doing its job.

It was at this point I began my research.

I knew laminate could be painted because I’d seen a kitchen completely transformed simply by the process.

But the question (I should have asked myself hours before), was, “how?”

A quick internet search brought the answer.

What I found proved how naive I was. Painting laminate, while not on a par with restoring the Sistine Chapel, is neither simple nor quick. (Darn!)

I discovered that you can purchase special paint expressly for painting laminate (duh). But I wasn’t about to go that route. (Too easy.)

Next I contacted the primer paint company in the hope that I just needed another coat or two to provide a firm grip for regular (low VOC) latex paint. Customer service replied with two words, “Bad idea.”

Many people might have a. taken those words as a challenge and proceeded so they could “show them!” or b. gone through the extensive (weeks long) process of painting the top as instructed on the web, using product not specifically formulated for laminate.

Not me. I did what I usually do when faced with this kind of situation.

I quit.

I figured I could come up with another way to transform the top without paint.

But before implementing another solution, I had to remove what I’d already applied. (Talk about wasting my time.)

I tried scraping it. That didn’t work. Well, technically it worked, but to do this small section took me 20 minutes and I had to ice my sore arm afterwards!

I had no intention of removing the primer with toxic chemicals that would melt off the paint but also be off-gassing for the rest of my days. I couldn’t do the job outside since it was pouring rain and cold (and same was forecast for the next couple of weeks).

There had to be a better way.

Brilliantly, instead of trying to invent my own non-toxic paint remover, I decided to search the web.

For what I discovered and how that little experiment went, you’ll have to wait to read my next post in the series. But it’s going to be worth it, I promise.

Lynn Colwell and Corey Colwell-Lipson are mother and daughter and authors of Celebrate Green! Creating Eco-Savvy Holidays, Celebrations and Traditions for the Whole Family, and founders of Green Halloween®.