A long time ago in a dumpster on the street...

Poor discarded wood desk

I found this desk.  It was sitting next to the dumpster at my apartment complex.  It had been gouged and poorly spray painted black.  (I had already started sanding it before I decided to take the before picture.)  The reason I grabbed it was because it was a solid wood desk. Not press-board. Not veneer. Not ply-wood.  Real wood.  Even the inside of the drawers are real wood.  I couldn't let it be tossed in the garbage.

Now, I have never refinished any furniture before, but, hey! the desk was small.  How hard could it be??  The hardest part was actually overcoming my fear of refinishing something.  I read a lot of online tutorials that explained how important it was to use the right sand paper, the right stripper, the right everything.  I gave up on being perfect and just had fun with it in the end.  In the end it took me 3 years to complete.  First and second years I sanded and striped it.  The second year I did some more sanding and primed and painted everything but the drawers.  This last year, the poor drawers have been sitting on the patio waiting for primer and paint.  I finally finished them up this week!  I am pretty excited.

Fresh coat of paint and new knobs.

You may have noticed that the long top drawer is missing.  The bottom of the drawer was broke in 2 pieces and I wasnt sure that wood glue would fix it well enough, so I decided to just leave it out.  Instead I put in a piece of plywood and left it open.  The idea was to have a place to store my laptop when not in use. We'll see how that ends up.  My laptop is near it's death.  I am sure I'll find something to stuff in there though!
I think it looks pretty good for my first time....and probably my only time.  While I am enjoying the end product, it didn't generally excite me.  I didn't finish it and think, "Wow! I cant wait to find another piece of old furniture to refinish!"  I am very happy to have a place to put my sewing machine though!  Before this it had been sort of a nomad.  Sometimes on my computer desk.  Sometimes on the fold-a-way table.  Even on the floor a couple of times (which really sucked!)  Now Mr. Sewandsew has a permanent home. :)

An action shot with Sewandsew.

I have asked my son's girlfriend if she wouldn't mind doing some artwork on the drawers.  She does really cute water colors of flowers and swirlies and vines and stuff.  I am hoping she'll do something to fancy it up a bit.

So here we go, one goal for May complete!  I am half done with the cover for my husband chair.  I haven't even touched Growth Rings. :(  And my gimme goal of something small, might just have to be the fact that I survived work over Mother's Day week and the Maker Faire this weekend.  Although, I shouldn't count my eggs before their hatched.  I haven't survived the Maker Faire yet!