Love the Second Time Around

I've been busy, busy, busy lately...but still managed to find some time to fall in love all over again with furniture rehabbing. My first project at 16 was an old painted desk that had been painted and wallpapered (yes, wallpapered) that I stripped and stained and was oh so proud of. No pictures, sorry! This was waaaaaayyy before my blogging started.

Since that project, there have been a few furniture projects off and on over the years. Recently, some curbside finds have re-sparked my love of refurbishing and reinventing furniture. Here is a look at some of the before-and-afters, with links to the full posts. (Warning - photo heavy post!)

These curbside finds were fun to play with:

a set of cheap drawers and a nightstand remade into a sofa table,

a poor, neglected table remade into a fun table for my hubs,

 and a cheap lamp table all gussied up with ORB and vintage sheet music.

Now that I was in the groove, I bought three pieces and rehabbed them. The first was a dresser for my brother:

Then came a dresser for myself:

And my latest was a not-so-awesome desk that turned out to be my absolute favorite. Here's what I started with:

A desk that had been sitting in a wet, moldy basement for probably 30 years and had something sitting on it that caused some damage to the top:

Lots of detail, a curvy top, and pretty feet hooked me immediately. The even better news was the missing handles were in one of the drawers, if I chose to use them. There was some veneer damage to the top, but a little wood putty took care of that. This desk was going to be black, and Martha Stewart's Francesca turned out to be the perfect choice. It's a soft black/darkest gray that's sooooo pretty! It's so pretty, the desk is now known as Francesca :)

After tons of sanding, the paint was rolled on with a foam roller and brushed out. A little distressing on the edges was all it needed. Then Francesca sat in the garage while I pondered the hardware issue. I just had to try to use this hardware but didn't want to spray paint it. That would look too new and perfect, and perfectly new doesn't work for Francesca. So I took some steel wool and baking soda to the hardware.

The photo above shows some of the detail this brought out. Well, since steel wool worked a little, what would a wire brush do?

Check out that hardware!! I'm in love and so glad I took the time to scrub them down! The original finish was so tarnished that none of the original silver showed through...and to think it almost got replaced.

Ok, Francesca's looking good...too good to go into this bedroom:

Hooooo-weeee! Look at that color! This room's color was a boo-boo that's been like this for 4 years :| The decision was instantly made to change all that in order to make my newly refurbished desk look spectacular. The color was one I had already tried out...in my office that is STILL in Gator colors:

It's the color on the right and left covering up the white/blue/orange. I have a remodel project holding up the repainting of this room...such a tease ;)

I used a primer/paint all-in-one, and since I knew it would cover that blue already, one gallon was all it took for the whole room - YAY!

Much better - even with the horrible light in this room.

NOW, my beautiful little Francesca could come into the house. The room is in-progress, but it's looking much, much better:

The light is so horrible in this room, no matter how many lights were turned on, lamps were lit, windows were opened, a good picture was nearly impossible...but every time I look at this desk, it makes me smile.

This has been a fun few months giving this furniture (and me) a chance at love the second time around. There are a few more furniture rehab projects in the works, but with the days getting shorter and colder, we'll see if any of them get done before winter.

What do you do when it's too cold to spray paint/paint outside??

Linking up here:


Junker Newbie's Would You Buy It Party
Knick of Time Tuesday Party