So, I grabbed a roll of basic blue painter's tape, and taped out a rectangle on my desk. I did not use a tape measure and just eye-balled it. I figured if the taped lines looked okay then the painted lines would be fine. I had to do a second coat of white on a few spots on the top, so I decided to try the "lock-in" method of painting the base color over the tape so the feature color won't bleed through. Sorry, forgot to photograph the first two steps but I did photograph the part where I painted the teal rectangle. It's the same English River (California Paints color matched to SW HGTV paint) as the back of the bookshelves on either side of the desk.
I painted on three coats because the semi-gloss is a little difficult to cover with flat paint (that I already had on hand). I was impatient so painted the first two coats within a couple of hours and then the third coat int the evening. After the third coat, I pulled the paint up. I only had tiny touch-ups to do, thanks to the lock-in method of painting the base color over the tape.
Here's the result.
I like the effect. At a minimum it needs a coat or two of polyurethane. It may need a piece of glass cut to fit the space so that we have a hard and kid-proof service which can withstand a lot of abuse.
What do you think?
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