Monday, February 16, 2015

The Free Roadside 1956 Desk | Before & After

The desk is complete! And I love it!



Just a reminder, but this is where it started...


Way back after we picked it up, I cleaned it really well and took some sandpaper to it. Before I painted it, I used {that toxic stuff} to help remove anything else that might be lingering. I did that before we ended up switching sizes on the handles from what was originally there. So, I then had to fill the holes. They were a decent size, so I filled once and sanded and came back again and repeated the process. Sometimes when the holes are a little larger, when the filler dries it doesn't quite fill everything up perfectly.




I only have those couple of really bad in progress shots from my phone that don't really even show too much. I was just too excited to get everything going and totally forgot...

Bill created a template for drilling all of the holes for the new handles. He's really good with being exact with that kind of stuff, where as I usually end up with a wonky hole somewhere in the mix... 

I used one layer of primer (Killz, because it was what I had on hand) to cover everything up and make sure I had a good starting point for the paint. I then ended up doing two layers of paint just to get a good coverage everywhere. For all of the painting, I used a small foam roller for most of it and a high quality brush to hit the places where a brush wouldn't work.

Once everything was dry, we got the handles installed. We waited even longer just so that the paint had some time to sit and dry really well before putting the drawers back in so that the paint wouldn't get messed up. I am soon happy with how it all turned out!

Two daytime shots...



 And a few night shots...




For now, that little Target stool fits perfect underneath, but I definitely need something better... a little taller, with a back. I've also discovered that the top isn't 100% flat. I'm guessing it warped a little at some point. There is only one exact spot on the surface that I have found where the keyboard doesn't "rock" while I type...