Before and After Secretary Desk

As I told you last week I found my dream piece of furniture.

 It was in pretty good shape, a few chips here and there and the middle drawer was coming apart but otherwise sturdy.

I searched ebay, etsy, hardware sites for the perfect drawer pulls but came up short. I went to Earthwise Salvage here in Seattle and found some great brass knobs for 50 cents a piece. Killer.

Then I did my 3 step cleaning process, it's the same that Morgan at The Brick House does.
I use Murphy's Oil Soap, Howard's Restor-a-Finish oil and Howard's Feed-n-wax. I swear by this method, it makes wood shine. I filled in the chips with wood filler, then used my wood stain pen to match the color of the wood. I glued, clamped and nailed the broken drawer.

Here's the result:

I forgot to polish the brass on the feet, that's super easy though. I use Barkeeper's Friend. It's a great powder product that cleans up my vintage pyrex finds, polishes brass and cleans most anything.

I'm undecided about the knobs, but I couldn't find anything better and they were so cheap so I suppose until I find something better those will stay.

Here's the inside:

I had all these great ideas on what to do with that back wall. I was going to wallpaper it, paint it white and put orange flower stencils (ala Lotta Jansdotter) but I really wanted to keep this project cheap so I just used some fabric I already had.

Then I thought about painting the interior of the drawers white but I'm lazy and just used the silver contact paper I had.

It replaced the table in my office that I used for packaging orders. The table has been relocated to the basement as a laundry table and the desk is now outgoing package central.
(You can see the old desk here).

The drawers are great for holding mailers tape all the nonsense you need for mailing out stuff. Which is great because I tend to accumulate a lot of nonsense.

Check out the top of the desk:

I am so in love with all of this stuff. First those canisters...why are tea canisters so dope? Orange and aqua and yellow and brass and birds...awesome overload.

Let's talk about that owl shall we? It was in Mascara Jones etsy shop and I had it in my favorites for a while. My birthday is coming up and the thought of not owning it made my stomach hurt. I finally ponied up the cash and she had it to me so fast it was unbelievable. Great shop, I highly recommend. I'm so in love with that owl.


So there it is, old turned new. What do you think?