Heeeyho Readers! Upcycling furniture to keep the mind sane.
Let's start this post by saying that @riverflows is better than me at everything. I'm not jealous of her lie, but utterly admire her lifestyle and way of carrying things. She inspires, although might not realize that lie again, she totally knows that, laughs.
This furniture refurbishing post is inspired on her, since she's the master of making stuff look nice. The idea is to give our old secretary desk some well-deserved shine.
My memories of this old desk go as far as little me doing preschool homework during the Napoleonic war in my grandparents farm. Yes, I'm getting kinda old. It was certainly there even before I was born or whatever. Then, over the past decade or so, this cool piece of furniture has been collecting dust in my dad's house. Until now.
I wanted to keep the original varnish look that so beautifully highlight the wood veins, meaning a lot of sanding to make everything smooth. By the way, only God knows what kind of wood that is; if it survived the years, it's gotta be good stuff.
First of all I clean the nasty spider webs and dust. Then, very gently, start to disassemble the doors. The way they crafted the junctions to form the drawer is really intricate; we don't see that level of detail on modern furniture.
There's one tiny repair at the back of the drawer and a lot of cleaning after removing the slide-out supports. That nail poking out is quite possibly from factory. Can I get a refund? {laughs}. I shall fix it.
One must admire any manual labor. In little steps we see progress, and that is incredible to boost our dopamine (that internet tends to take away). Feeling drained? Try to leave the cellphone aside and begin working on something manual. Tell me about the experience later.
Sanding requires patience that I don't have that I'm trying to develop. The sun is out, which helps a bunch to keep me focused. The secret is to crank some blues and embrace the task.
Look at those cool wavy veins! I decide to go for a sort of matte varnish — the only one we have at home. A super shinny gloss varnish would look cooler, I believe. Unfortunately I don't have photos of the painting phase (too scared to screw up). Here's the end result.
The photos don't do justice, but check the before and after above. Isn't it quite a change? The wood is now clean and smooth and the new varnish will protect the desk for a long time {I hope}. It's amazing how we can give a new life to old furniture.
The final result is a perfectly functioning vintage secretary desk.
My work here is not as epic and neat as @riverflow's upcycling adventures, but it made me proud. At least it's been finished instead of laying around half finished for ages as some of my other projects {sigh}.
I hope that this post inspires the readers to go out there and work on something. Less internet, more manual labor.
Peace.
Did you know that I have a book out? Check this!
Access Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/6500272773?
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~Love ya all,
Disclaimer: The author of this post is a convict broke backpacker, who has travelled more than 10.000 km hitchhiking and more than 5.000 km cycling. Following him may cause severe problems of wanderlust and inquietud. You've been warned.
