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My daughter wanted a desk for her bedroom to do homework, some drawing, and store some of her books and drawing supplies. I came across this desk on Ana White's page as plans for a Pottery Barn like desk called Channing Desk. This was my first woodworking project I've attempted. I finally used the new Kreg Jig that was sitting around for 2 years for the entire project.

I tend to be very detailed and a bit of a perfectionist so I spent a lot more time on the finish than was probably necessary. She wanted the finished desk to look like her bedroom furniture which is a glossy bright white finish. I wound up sealing/priming with something the paint dealer recommended (not the Advance Primer) and the final finish was Benjamin Moore Advance High Gloss. In hindsight, I found the sealer/primer difficult to work with. It was very thick and I had to work quickly. The Advance was good to work with although I struggled getting the final coat to be bubble free and I wound up trying several different methods to get it just right. I still don't know at this point what I could have done differently, but as I said this was my first project and I still have a lot to learn.

The lighting is a simple RGBW LED 5050 strip with a remote for her to change to a variety of different colors. Looking back I would have put some trim along the top center opening in the hutch to hide some LED lighting behind there as well. The back of the hutch she wanted half to have a magnetic wipe board so I bought some stainless steel from HD and spray painted it with chalkboard paint and on the other half cork board.

All in all, a good learning project and now I have to make a couple more for my other kids who didn't think Dad could make something that looks so good!

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Good job dad
 

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HEY you stole my style!
 

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Dang I did quite the same thing for my wife's workbench! Lit from the top, with a magnetic whiteboard! That must be a girls' thing I guess. I'll have to shoot pictures of the one I did :) Great job man (although I prefer the unpainted version)
 

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Thanks everyone. I just started a second one for my other daughter although hers will be a bit wider to fit a beverage cooler under the drawer. Not sure how she talked Mom into that one, but I'm glad it will have one of those glass doors so I can keep my eye on what goes in there. Maybe I can talk my wife into having a beverage cooler in our bedroom!
 

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That looks really nice! How is the finish holding up, particularly on the top portion where she sits or plays?

We have a variety of projects going on and one is working with the Advance and spraying it with our Earlex 5500. We have struggled with the bubbles as well. They tend to show up in the glossier finishes so we went with Satin. Another thread on here suggested mixing with a helix mixer rather than a paint stick. Any tips you have discovered for reducing the bubbles, please share!
 

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@DTSquared sorry I did not see this earlier!

Everything I have tried has not solved the air bubble issue 100%. I was told I was not letting it dry long enough before applying the second coat (it needs 16 hours under perfect conditions), I didn't prime correctly, my temperature and humidity were off, I wasn't using the correct brush, and I was told to mix in some floetrol. None of that made a difference. The closest I have come to eliminating just about all of them was on the new desk I tried pouring the paint on the larger areas and spread it as evenly as I could with the brush. I worked very quickly as I did not want to lose the leveling characteristic and for the air bubbles I could see I used a pin head to "pop" them. Very tedious, but worth it in the areas that were really visible.

The first desk I did has a nice hard surface and she uses it about once per day for homework and just hanging out talking to friends. She has left water bottles on it overnight and the "sweat" from them did not damage the surface. No major signs of wear from books being moved around on it. The school uses iPads for most submitted work, but when she does write the book is usually pretty thick as to not ding or dent the surface. The top of the hutch is where she keeps her caboodle from dance (her big metal makeup case) and that has not damaged the surface either so I would say so far so good. We wipe it down with a damp cloth and occasionally she likes to wipe it with some Pledge stuff.

As much as I love the way the finished product looks (or at least the spots without bubbles), the paint is a bugger to work with and I really wish I found a way to master it. That said, my next few projects won't be using white paint and so not sure I need to worry about it going forward.
 
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