Re-Stain a Desk + Add Silver Leaf
7 Materials
$40
1 Week
Easy
Bored with your furniture? Why not rework it?
The desk in my office is long tired. Long. Well ok, it's not a desk per se in that it's a big slab of wood from a home improvement store propped on some old Ikea sawhorse type legs.
The legs are no longer sold and over the years and several moves, have lost parts and their will to live. Thankfully my parents gifted me with some vintage hairpin legs. Sweet, right?!
So, time to redo it is.
(If you're curious how I did the fun temporary/removable wallpaper in my office, click here!)
I originally stained it a light blue some oh my gosh I won't even say however many years ago. And at first I started to sand it all.
Realizing the futility of my ways and, not to mention the impending mess, I dropped everything and hunted down paint stripper.
Which did absolutely nothing. Except peel up some of the polyurethane sealer. Why won't it remove stain?
So in perusing strippers online (paint strippers thank you), I find they mostly don't say anything about removing stain. Huh. Who knew?
I tracked one down that said it would do the deed. Well, they lied. It was worse than the previous stripper.
If you know of a stripper that removes stain, please!, please let me know!
Which meant, yep, you guessed it, back to sanding. And that sucked. Be sure to wear a dust mask and eye protection if you go this route.
I used 60 grit (really rough) to get everything off then switched to 150 (much finer) to smooth it all out. My poor arms.
Using Watco Dark Walnut stain, I made the top nice and pretty. Plus this stain kinda sorta matches my wood floors. Which was good because my office is quite tiny -- the top matching the floors will help visually enlarge the room.
But because I didn't sand the edges, I needed a solution for those. So I thought huh, how about silver leaf? Be sure to come by my blog, Flipping the Flip, to read more details about this part of the refinishing.
With a leaf adhesive and imitation silver leaf, I fancied up the edges. Thank goodness I was ok with the leaf being imperfect -- man, that stuff is fussy!
Once everything was dry and ready to go, I sealed the top with paste wax and attached the legs.
Looks much nicer now! Even Finn thinks so, good boy.
Be sure to come on by my blog by clicking the link below to get the details on this project and so many more fun one!
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Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
Comments
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4 of 26 comments
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Becky,
Hope all is well. I frequently make tables and your post gave me another option for the edge treatment. That you for posting. I will have to experiment with silver, copper, and gold leaf. I will cross reference this posting if/when I use this technique.
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Hi John! Excellent,, I’m so thrilled! Let me know how it works out! Thanks!
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I love that you used hairpin legs. They always have a great look.Years ago a very good friend who was in her nineties gave her living room set to me. The tables all had hairpin legs and I have loved that look ever since.
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They’re really great, I agree. A simple, unfussy look for sure. What a nice gift that was! Thanks!
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Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
Where did you find the legs?
Would it be possible to use silver paint and still make it look like silver leaf? I don't think I have the patience to leaf.
I am so very sorry to bother you, but the navy color of your wall in the picture is beautiful! I’ve been looking for just the right shade of navy and this is it! Would you mind telling me if you know the exact name or brand of the color you used? You could be the answer to my 3 month long search!
Thanks so much for your time!
Lynn