Secretary Desk Makeover

by Robin @ Redo It Yourself Inspirations

A curbside desk just needed a little TLC.

secretary desk makeover, diy, painted furniture, woodworking projects

As I stopped to pick up the top portion of this desk at the curb, a lady came out of her garage with the legs and said that her father was so happy that this former treasure was getting restored. He gave up on repairing it.

There was a good reason why it kept falling apart.

The corner supports were made of pressed fiberboard. Like paper, it will continue to rip and come apart with any amount of stress on it. The desk and legs are made of hardwood and the weight pulled on the corners. All of the glue attempts obviously failed.

So using one of the corner pieces as a pattern, I made a new set out of pine wood. Reconstructing the legs onto the table with the wood supports was easy.Quite sturdy now, the desk was ready for its makeover. I cleaned all of the surfaces.

Removed the drawer. Then wrapped up and taped the areas I didn't want to paint. The burlwood deserved to be shown off. So using plastic food wrap and painters' tape, I enclosed and taped it to keep as is. Then I spray painted all of the other surfaces, including the back of the desk. The interior sported its original finish for a desk top area.

I made sure to tape off the sliding desktop supports to keep them wood tone as well.

The long legs have pretty "cat paws".

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1 question

Caryn Grabow Sanders on Jul 27, 2018

Mine is burlwood. It's veneer, and scratched up quite a bit. Can I sand and refinish it, or is veneer too thin to sand. How do I get the scratches out?

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2 of 32 comments

Anita K on Jul 17, 2016
Beautiful rehab!

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Lori on Jul 17, 2016
I wish it were mine, it's remarkable. Congratulations on a job really well done.

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