Desk Redo

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I’m very excited to be sharing the first furniture redo by Mike on the blog. He has been refinishing furniture in our house forever but this is the first time I actually got a before picture. If we go through all the pieces in the house at half of them have been touched my him in some way.

We recently sold our barely used enormous L shaped desk. We wanted something smaller and I thought of a desk as my Dad’s house that was also barely used. It definitely had been well loved and was in need of refinishing. We both loved the clean lines and knew it could be transformed into something awesome.

As you can see from this pics the finish on this desk was pretty rough. Mike used stripper to take off the finish and then sanded the entire desk down to make it smooth. It already started to look like a different desk when it was all sanded down. I was actually surprised at how nice the wood was because I was a bit skeptical at what it was going to look like sanded down.

The plan was to replace the hardware on the desk to update it. The old handles weren’t a standard size so Mike had to fill in the old holes and drill new ones. Since he already had to do the work he opted to use knobs for the drawers and a handle for the middle one.

A couple of coats of dark stain plus poly and the desk was done. Ok, I am completely oversimplifying what it takes to refinish a desk. Mike tried to explain all the steps it takes to refinish a piece of furniture and I was in awe of what he does. Maybe one day I will get a step by step out of him but he’s usually in the zone when he’s working on a project. My camera and never ending questions usually interrupt his focus 🙂
After all Mike’s hard work it turned out fabulous. I am love with it now! It’s so much nicer than if we had bought a piece from the furniture store and it has way more sentimental value since it has been in family for a long time and was restored by my amazing husband.