April 10, 2014

This Thing I Do To Myself . . .

deskbefore

The radio silence this week is due one hundred percent to me putting too much on my plate. It’s this little thing I do to myself sometimes. Well, at a particular time, actually. See, my in-laws arrive tomorrow.  It seems that whenever I have guests coming to stay (which isn’t often enough, to be truthful) I get this crazy itch to finish about five thousand outstanding projects.

It almost never ends well. And I don’t learn my lesson.

GAAAAA!!!

Remember that Parsons chair I gave myself two weeks to finish back in February? Yeah, that didn’t happen. So I decided to attack it last week. Unfortunately, it had about two hundred staples more than the other chair. It is sitting in the dining room bare naked with the painters drop cloth draped artfully over it. Oh well.

What I did get finished is this desk.  When I acquired it back in January, it was being given away by a family from church. I took one look at the gorgeous detail work and ran, in the rain, to pick it up in my van.

The desk was beautiful but had horrible white paint on the top, sides, underneath, and on a few of the drawers covering up the wood underneath. I thought if I could strip it, then I could restain it and it would be lovely. Stripping it revealed poor quality wood underneath that didn’t match the rest of the desk.

Paint was my only option. I chose Annie Sloane chalk paint because I knew I wouldn’t have to sand the parts of the desk I hadn’t stripped. I used Paris Grey and gave it two coats. Once the paint was dry I sanded all the surfaces until they were smooth. I also rough sanded the areas that would naturally distress over time.

The most time consuming part of this project was waxing the desk with both clear and aged waxes to give it that worn over time, older piece look. I still need to age the pulls and knobs, but I’m just out of time!

 deskafter

I am sitting at the desk blogging right now! I love how it turned out. It was a process but worth it.

Tomorrow I will wake up and clean house like a mad woman. I am so excited to see my in-laws! It’s been three years since they were last here due to their mission in Hawaii. We are going to have a great Spring Break with them.

Might be a little spotty on the posting, but will try to put up some pictures each day.

6 comments:

Janie said...

I absolutely love the desk, it's beautiful ! Good luck cleaning and getting everything done, gooooo dragonfly!

The Queen Vee said...

Just make sure they have clean sheets and a clean bathroom, the rest doesn't matter.

The desk looks a mazing.

Aiketa said...

Wow! I really like how it turned out! So beautiful!
Make sure you don't injure yourself when cleaning, this is what happened to me last Thursday when cleaning my room for a guest... hahahaha
Have a great time with the in-laws!

Apis Melliflora said...

The desk is really beautiful. Hope you have gorgeous weather and make lots of good memoires with your great in-laws.

TracyS. said...

It turned out lovely!

Enjoy the time with family.

squeezeme said...

Absolutely love it! Everything you touch turns to gold.