Monday, September 17, 2012

Before & After: Grandpa's Desk Revival

Hello There!

I do believe some of my pre-pregnancy energy is coming back. I had a super busy weekend. I painted our nursery/master bedroom. (A huge room to paint, but the dark purple just wasn't cutting it.) I did a bit of sewing...as in I finally worked on my t-shirt quilt I've been working on for several years. I even finished up the burp clothes for Baby B and did a mini sewing lesson to my daughter which resulted in a Barbie blanket. We also painted some scrap wood that is going to be a tutu holder for my daughter. I finished up my craft marathon on Sunday with cutting some vinyl for nursery art and my iPad. Whew. I'm pretty sure from all that moving around, but it was nice to get some stuff done!

This "before" and "after" has been a long time coming. Earlier this year, I got this a-ma-zing desk from my in-laws. It came out of my husband's grandfather's house. It wasn't a really substaintual piece. The wood isn't particularly nice and it had quite a few dings and water rings. It wasn't going to be worth staining since the wood wasn't anything to write home about. What I loved about it was the "lines"...I loved how the drawers curved. I was smitten the first time I saw it. 

Now, I have a bit of an obsession with desks. I don't mean to. I don't go searching for desks, but some how they seem to find me. We have a beautiful desk that my husband's other grandfather made. That desk used to be in the living room (where this new desk now is). Now it's not that I don't love the desk, but it was a bit big for the space and the color of the wood looked terrible against the brown walls (oh, how I can't wait for the day I don't have dark brown walls...) And this beautiful desk is not the type of desk you paint. I'm pretty sure my husband would hang me. So, it's now in the guest room/study room/Our daughter's TV fort.

I also have a desk in our daughter's room (currently used as a changing table/dresser) that was my great great grandmas. I have a desk on the porch that's a planter/outdoor toy storage. So, as you can see, I'm no longer allowed to obtain desks.There is an official desk ban in our home.

I didn't get a proper "before" picture of this desk. I was too eager to start sanding it. But here's the desk and drawers during the sanding process.



I finished painting my desk white and was faced with a problem I often have. I didn't know what to do about the drawer pulls. This desk has particularly difficult pulls since they curved with the desk. I didn't think replacing them would be worth it. So, I decided to Pinterest to find ideas.

That's when I saw one of a thousand pins about "Looking Glass" spray paint. In my head this was a beautiful exciting idea. I would turn the knobs into little mirrors. How nice would that look? Give the desk a bit of glam.

Hmmmm. One should most definately read the label prior to buying $8.00 a can spray paint. Looking Glass spray paint only works on the reverse of a glass surface. So you would have to spray the other side of the knob and have it show through...which doesn't work for solid wood. I still have no idea how the people do the fancy lamps they have pinned. Do they have holes in the bottom so they can spray the inside?!? 

I decided since I had already bought expensive spray paint, I would try it anyways.

BLEH. It created a dull nickel/silver/magic marker finish. Of course it also showed every single nick in the wood EVER. I left the knobs like this for a month or so trying to convince myself that they were okay. (I didn't want to spend the money to replace them).


After a month or so of noticing how ugly they were every single day, I decided it was time for action.

I decided I still wanted a girly glam look since nothing in my house is really like that. I thought it would also look nice with the curves of the desk. So, I decided to go with glass knobs. Since a knob is cheaper than a pull, I had to fill in the holes from the pull. 

My daughter and I went to Lowes, picked up some knobs and some white wood filler and got to work. She helped by "microwaving" the old pulls and I spent an hour or so filling in holes, drilling new ones and repainting the surface of the drawers.



Much much better! So now it's finally time to show off the "before" and "after"!

Before:


After:
I'm thinking that white chair might need a splash of color...what do you think? Or maybe a fun cushion?



Want to know how to make art just like my piece? I did a tutorial here.

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