If you want to just "refinish" it to a cherry or mahogany or walnut color, use Restore-a-Finish. I did a similar project last week and found reviews of this product on earlier posts. It is truly amazing; just brush it on with a soft rag and it has a similar effect as refinishing...it's basically a chemical refinisher. Search for Restore-a-Finish in the apartmenttherapy search function and the posts with instructions, etc. with come up.

I don't know much about refinishing, but looking at the colors in your apartment, a wood color would go well with the warm colors around your bed and the window. On the other hand, a dark charcoal-ish gray would relate to the dining room chairs and the electronics around the desk (and might make hiding cords easier). Let us know what you do!

Love your place! What about painting with a satin black water-based paint (use a de-glosser first so the black sticks to the stain). This would compliment your white chair (fabulous) and contrast the silver table/black chairs in your kitchenette. Then, you could do something fun with the desktop. Paint an orange to compliment your bedding/curtains? Paint w/ chalkboard paint, draw a little, then cover the whole desktop with glass?You could also do a fun design by painting the desktop white first, after it dries lay down some painters tape in a fun design, paint over in satin black and then remove the tape for a cool design.

Sell it on Craigslist or eBay and buy a desk that works with the style of the rest of your home.

Otherwise paint it silver. Just prime the heck out of it.

I totally agree with Patrick. Get the parsons desk from west elm, it will fit is so much better with the rest of your place, no matter what color you refinish that desk.

Forget the desk, get some color on those walls! Its a cute apartment but needs a splash.

If you want to avoid stripping, B.I.N. Shellac Primer can pretty much go on top of anything, and under anything. I've put it right over glossy wood surfaces (2 coats) and it works wonders. (It does smell like pure rubbing alcohol, though, so open some windows.)

i picked up that exact same desk for free at a garage sale (i believe it's from pier 1). it's solid and in great shape, but the finish was all beat up and the color not right. all i did was rough it up with sandpaper, put a layer of primer on, painted 2 coats of regular interior paint (using a small fine finish foam roller), then did a couple coats of satin finish polyurethane. i painted it a very dark brown and also changed the hardware to polished nickel.

i had originally tried stripping it, but it was just so messy and time consuming. . .not really worth it!

i think it would look great white; maybe it's white distressed with black showing through. glossy black would also be nice. or paint the top b/w check or striped!

I'm with Ptoo on this, the style looks different from the rest of the apartment...and it seems you were thinking the same thing too

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/good-questions/good-questions-where-can-i-find-a-modern-looking-desk--034794

(phew i was starting to think the wine with dinner had brought me to halucinations 'havent i seen this place before?")

Craig is your friend.....

out on a limb.. but why couldn't mixing styles work? We've seen some great house tours with mixed styles.

Paint most of it white, paint the spindles gray or silver. Change the hardware to polished nickel. The desk lamp and floor lamp doesn't go with your apartment. Silverleaf the mirror.

You could paint it expresso or black and buy new hardware (drawer pulls or whatever (hard to tell from the picture) or spray paint the current hardware silver. You definitely want to at least give the desk a sanding (so the paint adheres better) before applying a primer and paint. If you're going darker, like black, you may be able to get away with 2 coats of paint. If lighter, you'll want a least one coat of primer before applying 1/2 coats of color. Use cabinet paint (will stand up better) and have it tinted to the color you want.