Best Ideas: February 2014

Monday, February 24, 2014

WHITE OVER YELLOW french desk

Just a simple update of this cute desk.

It has a single pedestal with 3 good sized drawers and pretty handles.

Ive lined all the drawers in this shabby chic damask paper.

It has little hints of yellow peeking through.

Vintage Desk re do w Stencil

I found this nice little vintage mahogany desk the other day. It was a little beat up, but

nothing that I couldn't handle with sanding and wood filler and my magic!

WHAT TO DO WITH A BAD DESK DRAWER

This is one of my favorite types of projects to work on. Something passed on to me from
someone who knows no matter how bad it looks believes I can turn it into
something fabulous. And this desk did come out looking amazing so keep reading.

This secretary had stickers on it, screws in it, ink stains, drawers that didnt work,

but the largest problem was one drawer was missing the whole corner.

My solution was .... get rid of the drawer.

I moved the bottom drawer into the top hole and altered the frame.

I repositioned the front kick board up and cut the side panel back to the rear legs.

Check out the photo above for details.

I put new legs on the front that just happened to be the exact length I needed.

If they had been shorter I could have cut the back legs to match the length.

Here she is standing up again with two drawers and new legs.

The inside of the top was also a big challenge to deal with. It had floor tiles stuck to the work surface,

melted wax to remove, holes that needed fill, and the piano hinge that held the fold down was

bent and missing screws. All of which I fixed but it took a lot of time and patience.

WD-40 is great for removing stickers and adhesive. Be sure to wash the area with soap and water after

using it. WD-40 is an oil based product that will cause water based paint to react funny on the surface.

Here she is all painted and put back together with new drawer pulls.

I hope this will get you thinking about your options for saving wood furniture from the landfill.

Heres the before and after ....

*************************************************

LOOKING FOR THE SAME KIND OF WHITE HARDWARE USED ON THIS PROJECT ...

Stop in to see whats available at firstfinds.

1000s of pieces of recycled furniture and cabinet hardware to choose from

Etsy Shop.

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Vintage Desk in Navy Blue

I found this darling little vintage desk a few months back.

However, the top could not be salvaged. I thought about scraping it (way too much work) and painting underneath, but I found out it was particle board. So rather than scrape and redo another laminate top,

I though why not just make a solid wood top??!

So thats what I did. I went to the lumber yard and found some solid cherry "shorts" for a song!

You can see where I started to scrape off the top. Fugettibout it!

Here are the 3 boards glued and jigged together getting sanded.

The edges were also routed to smooth them out.

I think I used a combo of stains. I know I did a gel in dark walnut. I might have thrown in some
red mahogany just to brighten it up a bit. Cherry is beautiful!

And here is the desk all put together!

Yes, I painted the "Union Jack" as well!

Oh, and the chair too!

Would this not be adorable in a boys room????

I love the new top better than the original!

If I never have to paint a "jack" again, it will be fine with me! LOL

This beaut is for sale!!

UPDATE>>>>>>I repainted it in BLACK

Linking up to all my faves below plus: betweennapsontheporch.net , my uncommon slice of suburbia, The Dedicated House , new house new home new life, Coastal Charm, The Shabby Creek Cottage, From my front porch to yours, House of Hepworths