George Nelson Steel Frame Desk colors question  

I wrote a comment, clicked the stupid captcha thing, submitted it, and look, there's the blank comment field with nothing in it again. Okay. Fine.

If you look at these with original finish, you can see the drawer pulls reflected in the enamel or lacquer color, so it's pretty safe to say that the sheen should be at least semi-gloss. Definitely not flat.

They look to be powdercoated.

Does powdercoating wear off like that, though? A lot of these have wear to the finish on the drawer edges. One of the photos I posted shows flaking where the pull is attached.

Images available online suggest drawer fronts are veneered lumber core plywood which would rule out powder coat finish. Likely sprayed lacquer-base paint as spanky has also suggested.

rich6705 - There might be something somewhere on the exact colors of the originals but I'd probably just go to a paint store and pick out a bunch of chips and compare them to photos of original colors online, then have the paint store tint some lacquer to that color.

What does the blue-painted surface look like? Are there brush marks? Are you sure that the person who did this also stripped the original color off? If there are any traces of the original color left (like on a drawer edge or underneath or somewhere), it might be a good idea to test it to see if it is lacquer or enamel. You can test lacquer by dampening a Q-tip with nail polish remover and rubbing the color; if it's lacquer it will show on the Q-tip immediately. If it's enamel, it won't.

Use orange and yellow spray paint, for crying out loud. Or just keep the blue, it's close enough to the original. Drawer sides came from factory in neutral/olive, to be painted or not painted by the user.