Furniture Flip: 60+ Year Old Japanese Study Desk!
4 Materials
$50
3 Days
Easy
This flip was done by my lovely wife Mariko!
Here's the story about this desk:
My wife's sister and her husband had a beautiful baby girl last year. I'd love to give you their names, but privacy is really important over here in Japan. (especially with names) Anyway, her sister and husband will eventually take over the farm, so they starting moving in a couple months ago. This desk was found collecting dust in a storage room. Since it's so old and beat up they sent it to the firewood chop block.
Mariko saw it and and brought it home. We started checking the desk for damage and found Mariko's father's name and other Kanji written in child's handwriting on the bottom. It turns out that this was his elementary school study desk. Crazy right! He didn't even remember.
Mariko immediately wanted to flip this desk for our new niece. She even bought a special persimmon stain and beeswax wax to make the flip as organic and toddler safe as possible.
Here is the before!
Here is some of the writing on the bottom. I blurred out the name because... JAPAN.
First, Mariko sanded everything down. Everything except for the handwriting on the bottom. She's going to keep that and probably seal it later for a memory. 
I removed the drawer pulls and screwed in the new ones. The new pulls didn't match the original holes, so I filled the holes in with a stainable wood putty.
This is odorless Kakishibu (persimmon juice) It is an environmentally friendly, safe coating. Kakishibu can be handled by anyone and is a safe coating friendly to both people and the environment. It can be applied to a variety of materials, such as the wooden parts of a house, furniture, fabrics, paper, and bamboo.
It stains a beautiful color! It gets darker with the more coats you apply.
Mariko bought these pulls at the dollar store. We love the dollar store!
This is Annie Sloan chalk paint!
Mariko used pure beeswax furniture polish on the tabletop and drawers. Beeswax is awesome.
Here's the finished desk in our family room. The desk is so low, because this is how Japanese children used to sit at their desks back in the day.
Mariko did an amazing job! I love it and I can't wait to see our nieces face when she gives it to her.
For more crafts and projects, check out Bryan's Workshop on Facebook and Instagram.
Comments
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3 of 63 comments
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Hi Bryan's no doubt you wife did a Amezing job and it is a beautiful piece , and I know is your taste and is beautiful , i grow up in farm house in Brazil and we used to have lots of furniture like your table and Im absolutely in love with that style, living in California now I can appreciate the natural beauty of raw wood
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Thank you Eliane! Wow, Brazil! Awesome! I appreciate your comment!
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That desk is so cool! Never seen one like it.
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
Where can one get the persimmon dye in the US?
Are there drawers on both sides like a shared desk?
Really pretty!
Where did you get this wonderfull Kakishibu (persimmon juice), did you buy it or did you make your own? It is a remarkable tranfiguration, what a remarkable project be proud and thank you for sharing.