Side note: If you see something for free on the side of the road, GRAB IT! In early August, we were going to a birthday lunch for my dad when I spotted a wonderful 1950's coffee table. Bill didn't want to go back and grab it, so I said if it's there on our way home, we're grabbing it. And then it was gone... I still think about what could have been with that wonderful coffee table. I hope whoever took it is loving it.
We didn't really take much time to look at it and really just brought it home, pulled it out of the car, noticed lots of ick still in the drawers, tried to empty them, and just threw it in the basement. I figured I would make it a summer project sometime after the wedding... Well, I managed to sort of forget about/put it off until recently when I got this bug to start a new project (never mind all the in progress ones I already have going).
I still hadn't taken a real good look at it. I just new it need some work. I really wanted to strip the ugly paint job and re-finish it to an appropriate 1950's wood stain. So, we went to Home Depot and bought all of the supplies. We got home, hauled the desk out of the basement and into the drive way and started pulling out the drawers. This is when I noticed that the sides aren't a solid wood... Ugh.
So, back to Home Depot we went to return the stripper and other supplies and picked up some paint instead... I'm not really happy to be painting it, but I guess that's the option I have unless I want to replace the sides and back of the desk. And lets be serious here, that's not going to happen...
I started the process of preparing to paint. I pulled out all the drawers, pulled out the rest of the ick I didn't get out before, and cleaned the whole thing (which was real nasty...). I started sanding it down to roughen up the paint finish. I would have started painting, but it was excessively windy and wasn't really into picking leaves and other things out of the paint. So, that's where I've stopped for now.
Found this on the bottom side of the top, middle drawer. It would have been nice to know where it came from... Maybe I'll try looking harder for more marks when I'm painting.
It's looking better already... but I'm still not a fan of the weird yellowy faux wood grain type finish.
Over the past couple days, I've seen a few things where parts are painted and other parts are stained wood. I think they look great! I'm just not sure if that would look okay with this desk.
I think I'll paint the body of the desk and then see how I feel. And maybe keep looking for more furniture done that way.
Some Examples...
This Moda Desk over at Room & Board has the general idea. I'm not really a fan of the light wood finish, but if you go to the link, it is also available in a darker wood stain and some funky colors.
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Room & Board Moda Desk |
Credenza over at Adventures in Creating |
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Design Sponge Vintage Dresser Revamp |
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