A $64 Dollar Desk

Hi Friends. I wanted to show you today how I restored an antique desk.

The desk style I liked was the Whitney desk from Pottery Barn. But seriously? $999 for a desk? Me thinks NOT.

Here is another one at ONLY $949 plus tax.

Enter the Craigslist disaster. For $35 I got antique, missing pulls, scratched, and even stickers.

Here are some close ups:

scratches and dings

Look at those scratches on the top.

Talk about your fixer upper. This thing looked like it was in need of stripping to restore.The saving grace is that it is sturdy with good bones. Confession: I used this for the past two years in this condition. How unsexy. In our new home, this will be the man's desk. I want him to be able to use a nice desk when he works from home. We need to bring sexy back to this desk.

Solution: A trip to Home Depot for Restor-A-Finish ($8.98) and staining pads ($3.98).

I followed the directions on the bottle and purchased new pulls from Ebay ($15 with shipping). Make sure you measure ALL the pulls' distance to center. This baby was at 2.5 inches for the top pulls and 3 inches for the bottom. 

Look at the top, it removed those scratches. Best of all, this took me under an hour to restore. Really amazing stuff I tell you. 

Ta-da! the after, bringing sexy back! Don'tcha wish your desk were hot like mine?! Restor-A-Finish people. If any of you restore any old desks, please show me. I will do a round up of all your desk projects.

Here is the comparison:

BEFORE:

 AFTER:

Total Cost:
Desk                        $35
Restor-A_Finish         8.98
Staining Pads              3.98
Tax                             1.04
Ebay knobs                 15

Total                           $64
Pottery Barn Desk  $999 plus tax

A total savings of  $935 (plus tax)

Until next time friends.

Nicole