Antique Desk Makeover

I love a great story behind furniture. This antique desk was my mother's desk from her childhood that her father bought her. My grandfather had to drop out of school in the 3rd grade, so he really cared about my mother's education. He thought that she needed a desk of her very own, so he took her to an auction. The auctioneer was using the desk to auction everything off, so they had to stay until the very end of the auction to get the desk.

Now that I've told you the fun story behind my desk, I guess I should explain the not so fun story or how it lost it's perfectly finished top. The desk used to be in great condition, but my grandmother overwatered the plants that she kept on the desk, so it started to loose it's beauty.

I saw a lot of potential in the desk when my parents brought it home from my grandmother's house Wednesday night. I had already fallen in love with it because of all the stories that I had heard about it, but I knew that it needed to be repurposed.

Today I got right on repurposing it, so I grabbed our electric sander and went straight to sanding it back to it's natural base wood finish.

 Once I got the top sanded down, I wiped away all of the dust and began staining the top.

The black marks are from the water damage from the plants, but the stain definitely helped to cover that up. I love the character that they gave the desk once I finished staining.

I liberally added my stain in Dark Walnut, and let it sit for 2 minutes once I got it the top coated.

Once the stain had set for 2 minutes I wiped away the excess, and let it dry for an hour.

While it was drying, I moved on to chalk painting the drawers.

I chose Annie Sloan Duck Egg Blue Chalk Paint for the drawers.

I painted two coats of the Annie Sloan Duck Egg Blue Chalk Paint.

I wanted to see how it looked together, so I slid the drawers in to see. I began distressing them with sandpaper, and then I added dark wax and seal it all with clear wax.

I added another coat of the stain, and repeated the process of letting it sit for 2 minutes, wiping off the excess, and then letting it dry for an hour. Instead of using Polyurethane to seal the stain, I used Annie Sloan's Clear Wax. I painted the desk white with Annie Sloan Old White Chalk Paint while everything was drying. I added a coat of clear wax over the Annie Sloan Old White Chalk Paint.

I put the original hardware back in the desk.

Here's the finished product! My typewriter loves it's new home! My desk will be in my new craft room tomorrow, and I can't want to reveal the room to y'all very soon because it is almost done.

Thank y'all for reading,

Lindsey

Linking to:
Romantic Home
French Country Cottage
Miss Mustard Seed
The Dedicated House