Craft A Spell: desk refinishing

My apartment comes with a craft nook. Okay, so it's not exactly labeled that on the floor plan but it's a nook and I plan on doing my crafting there. I was planning on trying to maybe make a desk of some sort. I had a craft desk that I had been using but it was my dad's school desk growing up and he was very attached to it. I didn't think he'd let me take it, nevertheless change it in anyway. But he finally caved. Here's what it looked like before:

That doesn't look too bad, right? Well, that's probably because my Cameo and laptop are positioned perfectly so you can't see the bad parts on the top.

It came complete with water stains, crust, gouges, and part of the top had peeled off. My dad, kindly, came to the rescue. Since I was so busy with other things, he sanded it for me and glued the legs back together since they had come apart a bit.

He used some wood putty to fill in some of the gouges. It was okay to use, he said, even though it was for our wood floors, since I was going to paint it (it wouldn't have worked if I had wanted to stain it). Here is a close up of the fixed top.

Here is the original hardware before painting. It's the rounder of the two (the pointier ones go with another piece I'll be sharing later). These handles weren't going to come apart so I stuck a toothpick in the side so they could get coated all around.

Here is what I used:

-Primer: Kilz
-Color: Sherwin Williams Spirited Green in semi-gloss (2 coats)
-Polyurethane: Minwax in Clear Gloss (2 coats)
-Hardware: Krylon Oil Rubbed Bronze

My dad just about died when I told him I wanted to paint it green. It went something like...

Me: "I'm going to paint the desk green."
Dad: "Green? GREEN? Really?!"
Me: "Like a mint green. It's so in right now. Green is your favorite color."
Dad: "Can't you just restain it or something? This was the desk I grew up with! I did my homework there."
Me: "I KNOW. But really, Dad? Have you SEEN the desk?"

Yeah. Well, guess what. It's my desk now! I can paint it whatever I want. And I chose this beautiful, delicious, soft minty green.

I am so in love with this desk. Really, the pictures do not do the color justice. It is awesome. And best of all...Dad approves.

With a piece like this, you definitely need to do a polyurethane-type protective coating (I kind of sound like I know what I'm talking about!). I'm going to be doing all sorts of painting and crafting here so I wanted to protect the surface.