Boy's Desk with Ombre Drawers

I shopped around for awhile for the perfect desk for my son. He wanted a cool desk just like his sister's Zebra Desk. I came across 2 desks through a friend and bought this one for only $10! I gave him the choice of which desk he preferred and he chose this one. The other desk is my next project :) I asked my son what color he wanted and he requested blue. As usual I spent days thinking and pondering my game plan. When the idea hit me, I was immediately excited! The associate at Lowes wasn't too thrilled with my paint request and said he'd duck next time I came in lol. 

This is what the desk looked like beforehand.

The desk is made by Broyhill. A good solid desk, but not 100% solid wood. So this desk needed to be primed. 

I always clean my furniture, vacuum and check for cobwebs. The bottom drawer had a bent track and my husband straightened that out so the drawer would open smoothly again. I bought 4 different colors of blue, all shades were from the same paint chip. I asked the associate for sample jars of each color ($3.48 each). Cheap huh?!

Since this desk is not solid wood I could not sand it down to prime for painting. Instead I applied a primer to the entire desk and all drawers, just like I did with my daughter's Tween Dresser.

I might have given this two coats of primer if I had chosen a light paint color, but since I was going darker, one coat of primer was enough. 

I painted the entire desk with two coats of the darkest blue I had purchased, Deep Twilight.

I painted each drawer with two coats of different shades of blue. The two top drawers are the lightest shade.

I applied 2 coats of clear satin polyurethane to all drawers and the desk. Always allow a full dry in between and lightly sand with a very fine steel wool pad. Do not sand after your final coat.

Just as an extra measure I always put a third coat on the top surface, especially if the furniture will be heavily used by children. In addition to the new paint I also replaced all hardware with brushed satin nickel pulls and knobs. I purchased these from eBay for approximately $1.40 each :)

Best of all was my son's reaction to the finished product. His eyes popped out of his head and he exclaimed, "It's just like I thought it would be!" So that means awesome right? 

Update: This desk matches perfectly in a newly designed nautical themed boy's room!