Epic Fail

 

I consider my self a fairly confident DIYer, but yesterday's project was a complete disaster.

You see, we bought a large computer desk on Saturday. It wasn't the most fabulous desk, the brown color was ugly, and the hardware was plain, but I had visions of painting it, and making it beautiful.

After giving it a light sanding I started priming it. I've done this so many times before and figured it would work just fine. Immediately the primer started bubbling up and looking as if it wasn't "sinking in". I was pretty confident that with a couple more coats it would harden and give me a strong base coat. So I kept priming- -three coats total. And then I painted two coats of a soft white satin paint.

It was looking great! I was ready to put the new hardware on a give the edges a light distressing. I grabbed a small sanding block and ran it across an edge. When I did, a piece of paint the size of a golf ball slid off with the block. I tried another section, the same thing happened.

The primer did not adhere to the desk. I had been working on this ALL DAY LONG and it was ruined.

 

At this point my kids were home from school, so I promised them a trip out for ice cream if they would come help me peel the paint off. The five of us worked for over an hour, getting most of the big pieces off. I then spent another two hours sanding it.

Here's the pile of peeled off paint.

 

This is what it looks like this morning. I've sanded all the paint off, and most of the original finish. it still needs more sanding before I can start again with the primer and paint, but I think it's salvageable.

 To add even more heartbreak to the story, last night I dropped one of the drawers and completely busted it. It's going to have to be rebuilt at some point.

This is definitely a learning experience for me. Hopefully when it's all said and done the desk will be beautiful.

 

Hopefully