I'm looking to repaint & resurface a wooden desk in our house that is currently untreated. My desire is to bring the desk surface to a polished/reflective gloss white finish using a combination of acrylic high-gloss paint, and buffing/wet-sanding up to 3000 with a random orbital sander to bring out a shine.
My expectation—from the research I've done—is that this should bring out a reflective and clean finish on the surface.
My one cause for concern is that this desk is also in a fairly high use area, and gets used multiple times per day. For example, it's not uncommon for this desk to be used as a workspace, so you can imagine keyboard/elbows/arms/hot drinks are all sitting on its surface.
What sort of expectations should I be setting with respect to this finish lasting over time? Will the reflectivity dull over time? If so, what precautions and steps can I take to ensure this is either mitigated or doesn't occur?
Best Answer
With the type of prep and finish you are describing it sounds like the desk our Dad made for his masters project. It still is in use today by my little brother in his home office, the only difference is you have to know how to open the secret drawers and those can be hard to find , never made it to that level because I went into the sparky world , any time a good sanding and many coats of quality finish is used it can last generations. I love DA or dual action sanders I have found to make high end quality finishes a very fine paper is used , dad taught me to use up to 1200 wet paper for custom jobs with varathane on oak & walnut that looks like glass 20 years later.