Awhile ago while I was shopping for various used furniture pieces, I spied this cute little desk. The tag showed the price of $149, but Shelton's always seems to have a "Today Only" 1/2 price sale. So, that dropped the price down to $75, which isn't bad, but I figured I'd see if there's any room for negotiation (can't hurt to ask), so I asked if they'd give it to me for $60 and they did! Sweet! So here it is before:
I loved the pseudo-Greek key detail under the top:
Before painting the piece, I took off the hardware and got out my Brasso. These were a bitch to clean, since I'm pretty sure the hardware isn't actual brass. After scrubbing and cleaning for about 45 minutes, I figured I'd just leave it as good as I could get it and not worry about it being perfect.
I was originally going to paint it with Martha Stewart's Maine Lobster color, but after scanning the "oops" paint section, I found a quart of red paint for $1. Sold.
After sanding, the desk got a coat of primer, then three coats of "Chianti" red.
It actually matches the guest room quilt completely perfectly. Hooray. I love this four-poster bed that my grandfather made, but it's so tall that normal nightstands wind up far too short. The desk is a perfect solution. Still don't know what I'll put on the other side of the bed, but I'll figure it out.
The artwork is temporary; it's a bit generic for my taste, but the room needs something there, so this'll do for now.
The room still needs a rug and drapes, but it's coming along:
2 comments:
Very nice. Did you put some kind of finish over the paint? I'm thinking I need to put something over the basement furniture we painted red.
Kathy--I haven't put anything over the paint yet, but I'm going to. I plan on putting some Wipe On Poly on the top at the very least in order to protect the paint from chipping.
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