Old Abused Desk Finds a New Home

Kaye
by Kaye
5 Materials
$50
10 Days
Medium
The small plastic table my sewing machine was sitting on had started to have a serious bow in the middle. After seeing a few desks on Home talk, I decided to find an old desk and rework it for my craft room. (Does anyone else have a perfectly good craft room but seem to spread their stuff throughout the house and garage?)

While digging in the back of one of my favorite resale shops, I discover an old teacher's desk from way back when. Unknown to me the "stain" was the infamous boiled linseed oil. The top had a large grease stain, oil stain and some other stain I couldn't determine.

Inside one of the drawers was a ink stamp from a school in Chicago. When I Googled the school, I found it opened in 1939. The school specialized in hard to place students. The school is closed now, but helped quite a few kids.
While finishing a thorough scrubbing with Tuff Stuff; I realized that using a power spray might have been a little faster. Instead, a 1" putty knife, more Tuff Stuff and lots of elbow grease removed the bulk of scum, ink, and oil. Industrial strength floor wax was a challenge to remove as there were multiple layers on the legs.


Finally it was clean enough to begin sanding. Remember the linseed oil I mentioned earlier? Well the majority of the desk required 60 grit sandpaper to remove the polish. The panels were not sand-able as they were too thin. In stead they got a good roughing up and a promise.



I also sanded the inside of the drawers to remove years of crud and adhesive remains. I removed the handles on the drawers with the intention of finding something I liked better.
I covered the top in a dark stain, as I couldn't get the grease and oil marks out. I wanted to paint the wood panels and trim navy blue. Instead, I store gave me a incorrect color match to my sample and I found out the color was a much lighter blue.


By this time, I was getting really tired of this project and just wanted to get it done. So on went the wrong blue paint. To break up the wrong blue; I dry brushed painted surfaces with yet another wrong color blue I had in the cabinet. Let me know what you think!


I stained the drawer fronts and inside along with the sliding tray. Then on with the gloss polyurethane sealer. I have the top 4 good coats. It was my first time using a sponge brush instead of a paint brush and I will never go back.
I decided to keep the original handles but instead of just paint I coated them in polyurethane. Adding a pull instead of leaving the lock made the middle drawer easier to open and close.


Happy to be done in Wisconsin!
Finished!
Suggested materials:
  • Blue Paint   (Valspar)
  • Blue Chalk Paint   (Wal-mart)
  • Tuff Stuff   (Home Depot)
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  • Jewellmartin Jewellmartin on Aug 20, 2017

    I love the desk, blue and all. If you can't be experimental in your craft room, where could you? For a sewing machine table, I would turn the desk perpendicular to the wall so fabrics could pass over the table. Which makes me ask, how did you paint or stain the large front of the desk? Best wishes 😇

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  • Kaye Kaye on Aug 21, 2017

    Well Done! Next time I run into "harder than nails" finish I am going to try a stripper. Can't hurt - maybe.

  • Sandra Smith Sandra Smith on Aug 28, 2017

    I also have a perfectly good "craft room" and my projects still seem to end up being done everywhere else. My dining room and kitchen, especially, see the most action and mess. Oh well, whatever works.

    I love your project! Keep up the good work.

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