BARBIE-INSPIRED DESK MAKEOVER & HOW TO CREATE THE PERFECT CUSTOM COLOR WITH NO GUESSWORK! | YOUTUBE VIDEO

Growing up, my sister and I LOVED Barbie. When the Barbie Movie came to our theatre last week, we thought it would be fun to go check out what all the hype was about. I don’t want to ruin this movie for any of you who may go see it – but I will share that Ryan Gosling made the perfect Ken! I also found the ‘Plastic Barbie Land’ set fascinating. It inspired me to pull out a thrift desk I had in my inventory and paint a pink plastic-looking desk. Inspo comes from everywhere and anywhere, right? I can’t wait to hear what you think of this plastic Barbie-Inspired look!

It’s also Trash To Treasure Tuesday. I’m joining my T2T crew and sharing links to their projects down below. I’m looking forward to seeing what they’ve created and I hope you join me on the tour as well!

Here’s the thrift desk I started with. I found it from my local Restore selling for $35.

The desk is solid wood and very well built but the top was pretty scratched up. The drawer needed a small repair as well.

And check out these cut-outs. I had a feeling the cubby on both sides with design detail would help turn this into a perfect real-life Barbie-Desk!

THIS POST IS SPONSORED/CONTAINS AFFILIATE LINKS TO PRODUCTS I USE.  YOU CAN SEE MY FULL DISCLOSURE HERE.

WHAT YOU’LL NEED

$35 Thrifted Desk  – SALVAGED
White Lightning Cleaner
Titebond Wood Glue
Bosch Sander (25% OFF as of writing this!)
BIN Shellac Based Primer
Dixie Mud Filler White
Peony Chalk Mineral Paint
Fluff Chalk Mineral Paint
Honky Tonk Red Chalk Mineral Paint
2″ Mini Paint Brush
Gator Hide Topcoat
Astro EURO HVLP Spray Gun (1.7mm Tip)

BARBIE-INSPIRED DESK with CUSTOM PINK

I’m also sharing a FREE and easy way to create a custom paint color without all the guesswork.

CLEAN & PREP  

I started by removing the hardware and giving this desk a good cleaning with some White Lightning. I made sure to rinse my sponge and wipe the desk with clean water to remove any residue before priming.

DRAWER REPAIR

The drawer was all wonky because one of the drawer rails had fallen off its grooved track. Luckily it was sitting in the drawer so all it needed was to be glued back into place with some Titebond Wood Glue.

SANDING

Once it was all cleaned and repaired, I went ahead and gave the entire piece a scuff sanding with my Bosch Sander which is 25% OFF as of writing this post! I gave the top of this desk some extra sanding to smooth out the large scratches.

PRIMING

Before I filled any deeper scratches or flaws that the sander could not remove, I gave the entire desk two coats of BIN Shellac Based Primer. I love this BIN Primer because I can see EXACTLY where the bleedthrough is before I paint and prime. If I see any bleed-through peeking through, I know another coat is primer is needed. Once this primer covers it up, I’m 100% sure the bleedthrough won’t rear its ugly head after I paint or topcoat! I have a full tutorial on How To Use BIN Shellac Based Primer HERE.

WOOD FILLER

For the larger scratches that the sander could not remove, I used this Dixie Mud Wood Filler in White. It’s easy to use and sands very easily by hand. Once I filled and sanded, I spot primed over the area. Oh and as you can see there’s a sneak peek of the custom pink paint color I used. After I mixed it I couldn’t wait to see what it was going to look like on this desk so while my filler was drying, I started painting!

 

CUSTOM PINK PAINT COLOR

If you’re trying to create a custom color for your project, rather than pull out all your paints and start mixing them all to experiment, I suggest using an online color mixer. I clicked on Dixie Belle’s Color Mixer and started playing around to find the perfect pink. I came up with the recipe below. Two parts Honky Tonk Red,  four parts Peony, and four parts Fluff. This gave me a vibrant bubble gum pink! I have a demo of how this works on the Youtube video below.

STEP-BY-STEP COLOR MIXER

1. Go to https://dixiebellepaint.com/color-mixer/
2. Pick which paint line you’d like to mix – Chalk – Silk – Terra
3. Click on the + in the “Choose Color” box and select a color from the color palette
4. Pick up to two more colors
5. Click the plus (+) or minus (-) to increase or decrease the amount of paint
6. Play around until you’ve created your PERFECT custom paint color
7. Download the recipe or take a screenshot

PAINTING

Now for the FUN part! I painted two coats of my custom bubble gum pink using my 2″ mini paintbrush.

Here’s what it looked like after the first coat.

PAINTING DETAILS 

After the first coat, I decided the desk needed more pink. I used this Peony to paint the side cubbies and the cutout details in the darker pink.

Now it was starting to look like ‘real’ Barbie-Inspired furniture!

TOPCOAT

The next morning after everything was dry, I spray-top-coated this desk with Gator Hide.

FINISHED BARBIE-INSPIRED DESK

Here’s the finished look. This desk is SO DARN FUN! I would have LOVED it as a kid!!!

What do you think? Does it look like the plastic Barbie-Furniture you used to play with?

Andrea and I had sooo many Barbie Dolls. We also had the Barbie vette, the camper, the dog, the 70’s green and pink living room furniture, the vanity, and of course KEN. I would have wanted this desk as well…lol!

Here’s a closer look at the Peony painted drawer and knobs. I can’t wait to hear what YOU think!

YOUTUBE TUTORIAL

Here’s a step-by-step tutorial on Youtube. If you have any problems viewing it below, feel free to watch it on my Youtube Channel HERE. Our #siyoutubefamily is already a community of 40K so don’t forget to subscribe if you haven’t done so already! So exciting, thank YOU! 🙂

And now for some Trash To Treasure FUN!

You’re going to LOVE what my creative Trash To Treasure ladies do! 🙂 Below are the BEFORE photos. Visit the links underneath to see the amazing AFTERS and learn how they did it! I’m heading over to take a peek as well! x

 

1. GIRL IN THE GARAGE

2. ARTSY CHICKS RULE

3. PRODIGAL PIECES

4. SALVAGED INSPIRATIONS (HAPPY YOU’RE HERE!)

5. CONFESSIONS OF A SERIAL DIYER

Here’s another look at this Barbie-Inspired-Desk before and after. I hope it’s inspired you and given you some ideas for your projects!

 

LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK OF THIS DESK MAKEOVER OR  FEEL FREE TO ASK ANY QUESTIONS YOU MAY HAVE… I ALWAYS LOVE HEARING FROM YOU. IT MAKES MY DAY! 🙂

Happy painting my friends!

Denise x

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