I’ve been seeing a lot of bohemian style out there lately, how about you?  Apartment Therapy has this to say about bohemian style:  A true Bohemian room should look like it’s been furnished over decades of globetrotting and a lifetime of creative scavenging and upcycling.  Follow the link to read their full article, but I’ll emphasis point no. 3, if you’re lucky enough to have actual furniture, it should be distressed.  Amen to that!

I was feeling decidedly bohemian when I decided to go with a distressed saturated blue on this desk.

But let’s start at the beginning, shall we?

Mr. Q and I picked this desk up a while back.  It was another craigslist buy.

It’s gorgeous, but up close it had some issues.  There is some trim missing on one of the drawers, and there are a few nicks and chips in the veneer.  There was even this big chunk of veneer missing on the side, and it appears as though someone attempted to sand the rough edges, doing a lot more damage in the process.

You get the idea, it is a lovely piece, but a good candidate for painting because of some damage.

The desk sat patiently waiting for inspiration to strike.  I had a couple of plans for it that got scrapped.  One involved leaving the drawer fronts in the original finish and just painting the body of the desk.  Another was to go black.  But then the idea of bright blue stuck.  To balance the bright blue color, I decided to leave the top unpainted.  I stripped it, then used Varathane’s Dark Walnut gel stain on it.  This desktop is a walnut veneer by the way.  I finished with a Wipe on Poly with a satin finish. The top is now really lovely.

Isn’t the original hardware on this one pretty?  I didn’t do anything to it, just put it right back on.

As for the paint job, this is the same technique I used on my own Rooster cupboard.  I painted a base coat of MMS milk paint in Artissimo.  Then I added two coats of MMS Flow Blue.  This one is finished with hemp oil though (I used dark wax on my cupboard).

You can see some hints of the darker Artissimo in spots.

One of the prettiest details on this desk is this little bit at the bottom.

And the legs are quite lovely as well.

So what do you think?  Bohemian, yea or nay?

 This desk is for sale for $225.  If interested, feel free to email me at oakdalecarriagehouse@gmail.com.