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

Fixing Chipped Wood Veneer

Hey friends. This is my first tutorial. I will be showing you the ghetto fabulous way of fixing chipped wood veneer. I love all things vintage and love thrifting unique pieces. Sometimes I come across less than perfect pieces. This sewing desk came with the vintage Singer 500A (review to come) that I purchased. The desk is sturdy and functional but there is a big chip in it.

 As I was at Home Depot today, I saw that they had free laminate flooring samples. I snagged a few that I thought matched the desk. 

I had the Man pry the laminate off the floor sample so that I was left with just a thin piece. He said it was hard to do. I think I should have told him to iron it first so that the heat would loosen the glue (oops!).

Those are his man hands double checking that what he cut fit . (Hey, real men can rock their daughter's princess bandages because their "31" wife (*said with sarcasm) cannot find the adult ones.)

He also pried off some of the wood on the desk so that the laminate piece would fit on there since it was a little thick. Then I used E6000 (the best glue ever) to glue what the hubby cut down for me.

I attempted to have a clamp hold this down for me but the clamp was too thick. So I had to hold it in place for a bit until the glue dried. (Yes, I need a manicure.)

There you have it. Not as big an eye sore as before.  Now if I can just find nicer pulls. I hate the brass.

Until next time friends,

Nicole