Treasures

This week we wanted to post one of our recent restorations that we did.  It is always so fun to find an old piece and see it brought back to life.  

This desk is from the 1920's and was brought over from England by a family years ago.  It has since stayed in the same family until I got a hold of it.  It was in pretty rough condition when I got it but it was such a beautiful piece that I couldn't pass it up.  Everything on it was original and someone at some point started stripping the paint off of it.  

With a desk this old there are layers upon layers of paint from years of people wanting to 'freshen' it up.    I have never had a piece that was so hard to strip (and hope I never will again :)  The game plan for this desk was simple : 1. Remove paint  2. Sand tops down  3.  Repaint, stain and varnish  4.  Reassemble

I left a little bit of the old paint on the edge of the desk top because I really loved the look of it.  The top is stained in an 'early american' stain and given 2 coats of varnish.  The top was so dry that it soaked up the stain really quickly, so I had to be careful not to leave it on to long.  The whole base received 2 coats of paint that was tinted off white, to give it an antiqued look.  The casters for this desk are original porcelain.  The bottom 2 handles were missing on this desk so I took it to a friend who deals in antique and vintage hardware.  He found some handles that were similar but in the end I decided to leave it up to whoever would buy it.  

Sometimes I wish that I had a huge house to fill with all of the treasures that we find.  I also wish that I had lots of money so that I didn't have to sell the same treasures.  Maybe one day both will be true but until then we will keep on carrying on.  

Treasures.

(This piece is for sale, please contact if interested)