My Simple Modest Chic: Making Anew~How to Paint Laminate

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With every New Year, comes the opportunity to look forward to the upcoming year, set goals for yourself & re-invent yourself {make yourself anew}. Most people call these their New Year Resolutions, I remember doing these as a young girl with my mom. We would sit around the dinning room table on New Year's eve and would jot down a dozen different things we'd like to work towards or would like to accomplish the following year. After writing our goals we'd also do some corky Mexican traditions for celebrating the new year, like eating twelve grapes right at midnight {for luck}, burning candles {for wealth & food}, and deep cleaning our house {to symbolize new beginnings/renewal}.

Although I don't adhere to these traditions like I did as a child, I did ponder on them during New Years eve and it got me thinking about what I'd like to make anew. I feel like I always have an endless supply of little projects that I could work on & that could be done within a days time. So with that in mind I decided to start checking things off my to-do list, starting with a black laminate desk.

There are a lot of misconceptions about painting laminate, so I wanted to share a couple tips that will help dispel them & make painting so much easier.
You don't have to worry about sanding the laminate because many times it can destroy the finish on it and you can just as easily work around it.

The trick is using a high quality primer & paint duo. Because laminate has a shiny finish if you skip the primer & apply the paint directly on it, it will not adhere properly. You will simply get paint bubbles. But if you start with a good primer you can avoid all that stress. For this project you'll only need four things: satin enamel primer & paint duo, a small foam roller, a small painting brush & painter's tape.

First step is to put painter's tape anywhere you don't want the paint to go {for me that was the hardware and legs of the desk}.

Now you can start painting ;). You'll want to give it a light coat & then let it rest for about three hours. If you don't give the paint enough time to rest & absorb into the furniture, then you will end up with a goopy mess. I've been there before, and it's no-fun! So just let it rest for awhile and come back when you think it's completely dry.

This is what the desk looked like after the first coat. At this point I took out my small paint brush and painted around the hardware. After a few hours, I gave it another coat of paint & let it dry overnight.

The next morning, as I waited for it to be fully cured {dry}, I headed to Target to find some cute accessories & add some much needed personality to this clean & freshly painted desk!

I don't know about you but after painting anything, I always like to add a nice smelling scent into the room to counteract any paint fumes that might be lingering. So I swung by the scented candle aisle to pick up some wax melts {you know those little wax cubes that you melt & leaves your home smelling amazing}. I was instantly drawn in by the Glade® Clean Linen® Wax Melts , because of the fresh & new aroma.

Doesn't the desk look so much better in white? I never cease to be amazed by what a little paint can do to transform a piece of furniture!