Before and After Vintage Desk

Well, this is my first post, and I'm really excited to become a part of the blogging world. My goal is to blog about redesign and decorating and share my love of this field, but also give glimpses into my daily life. I can't wait to get started, so here goes!

Yesterday I turned an old vintage desk into a new vintage desk. It all started when I needed more desk space for my little office (think living room with shelves and a little desk and bulletin board) and swiped my 15 year-old daughter's desk to give myself a corner return with more table top space. But after I took her desk (which, by the way, was no problem matching to my living room desk because I had painted them the same way, a sunset beige tone with oil-rubbed bronze handles) I realized she needed another desk-- so I jumped in the car, drove to Goodwill and immediately found a faded, yellowed old French Provincial desk. It had good bones, and when I looked in the drawers, I saw it was manufactured by Drexel Heritage. Perfect. I hauled it home and looked it up online-- it was part of the Touraine collection, made in the 1960s. Some of Craigslist ads priced some pieces from the Touraine line at up to $450.

I got it for $49. A bit pricey for Goodwill, but oh well. Inflation has hit thrift stores too. Here's what it looked like:

I painted it with decorative finishes from the Country Living Artisan Collection from Caromal Colours. (Don't intend to promote, but it's actually great paint for decorative painting.) After cleaning it up a bit and taking off the knobs, I followed the paint's directions and smooshed on the Parchment Colour all over the main parts of the desk, then trimmed it with Peppercorn (a black color) and Cobblestone (a muted green). Then I sanded corners and places where I thought it would be worn with an electric hand-sander. Finally, I brushed on toner and wiped it down with a wet wash cloth. I put the knobs back on and it was done.
So here's the after photo.


It looks like a vintage desk still, but I think it's better looking than before. Prettier and cleaner and "newer" in a vintage sort of way. My daughter loves it. It has more drawers than her other desk (which I'll show another time) and she's got all her entertainment stuff on the left side and her school stuff on the right side. What do you think?

I welcome your comments and am thrilled to be blogging. Much more to come!