Thrift store desk.

So awhile ago I pick up this desk at a thrift store. It was in pretty rough shape with warped boards on the top and not hardware. The desk looked like it had been neglected for quite a while. They were having a 1/2 off sale so it cost me $10. With such a low price I figured I would take a chance and fixing it up. My oldest daughter had been wanting a desk for a while so I figured it could be a project for us.

First thing I set out to do was fix the warped boards on the top. I clamped and glued what could. then I drilled small hole along the edge of the boards and screwed small screws down to pull the board together, Filled all the holes and seams with wood filler.

The top was still uneven so I broke out my hand plane and went to work. After some time with the hand plane and some more wood filler I was able to get the top level.

 

So with the top all squared away I started on the drawers. None of the drawers ha and hardware so we filled all the old holes with filler and some of the drawers need to be glued and clamped. After they were fixed a sanded everything down to be ready for paint. I let my daughter choose what color she wanted. She chose pink with blue drawers.

So I started on the desk itself painting first. I put two to three coats of paint and then sanded smooth.

Then I hit the drawers with a few coats of blue, sanded smooth and installed the hardware. Then I coated everything with a coat of wax and called it done.

Now I have one happy middle schooler. Stay tuned for further projects.

 

Garbage pile coffee table

                                                    Garbage pile coffee table
 So a few months ago I snagged this coffee table someone had out by the road. it was in decent shape and nice and sturdy. The underside of the table has a manufacture date in 1972. It baffles me that someone will throw out a old piece that is in as good of shape as this. I decided to paint it black and red to match our living room set. I had some black spray paint for the legs and left over red that we used on the walls.

After a few coats I sanded everything down with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth everything out. Then I added a few coats of a dark stain/polyurthane for protection. After that was dry I sanded everything down with 320 grit to get a smooth finish.

Then a coat of furniture wax and it will be perfect for our living room. 

Wife's dresser

My wife's dresser.

So my wife and I have had this dresser ever since we moved in with other. I forget how we got it, anyway we stopped using it a few years ago and it was moved to garage. I used it to store some tools, but mostly junk. One day my wife asked me if I could paint it for her to put back in our bedroom. She wanted a grey dresser. We had some left over paint from my daughters room so I gave it a shot. 

First thing I did was sand the whole dresser down. I started with 60 grit sandpaper and worked my way up to 220 trying to make everything as smooth as possible. My wife wanted to use different knobs so I filled all  the original holes with wood filler and sanded flush.

next I set out to paint. I painted the drawers and the top with Gentle Rain Gray.

At this point I ran out of paint. While cleaning up garage I found two cans of Aqua Blue spray paint and we decided to go with a two tone look on it. So I painted the blue with multiple light coats on the front and sides. I also painted the handles to match.

After all the paint was dry I sanded everything smooth with 220 grit sandpaper and applied a weather grey stain and polyurethane to the grey sections. After that I sanded everything with 320 grit and covered with a furniture wax.  Installed all the hardware and this is the result.

This is the finished product.  And I scored some major brownie points.

My journey into furniture restoration and craftsmanship.

Here I am, joining the world of blogging and story telling. My name is Chris, I'm a career firefighter and landscaper. Recently I found a passion for restoring furniture. It all started with this dresser above. We had it in our garage collecting junk. One day my wife mentioned painting it and using it again. So soon the dresser turned into this

 

Stay tuned for future blogs and furniture pieces.