Snowballing
We just needed a new desk. Emm’s heading to middle school in three days (3 days!) and her tiny desk from first grade just wasn’t going to cut it any longer. I measured her room and we headed out to Ikea to find something bigger, preferably with storage as well. Well, I measured her room in June. We went out to Ikea in August. I think you see where I’m going here.
The desk we came back with was 2 inches too long for the space. This was discovered before we put the desk together but after the box had been ripped to shreds trying to get it open. But. But. If I just got her a different dresser, a narrow one that would fit where the small desk had been, then we could place the longer desk on the other wall. And since we were going that far, we should replace her Ikea bedding that had developed weird spots, go through everything in her room and clear it out, and remove those cute party decorations that never quite worked. Project snowballing achieved.
So I went off to my favorite thrift shop, knowing that every time I go to look for something specific, it’s never there. This time however, as those of you on Instagram know, I struck gold. Really beat up gold with excellent bones at just the right size. I measured twice.
A solid mid-century dresser, not a reproduction, with lovely brass handles. Score. A little wood filler, a little paint, a lot of polishing.
That middle picture, by the way, is how my living room looked on our new sitter’s first day. I decided she might as well know what she was dealing with from the start. The living room looked like that and Finn and I were arguing about how the island trim should look when she arrived. Mid-argument. Then I went to work. Good times.
Emmeth chose Heavy Goose from the Martha Stewart line at Home Depot. I had it color matched to Behr in a semi-gloss. I filled the scrapes and dents with wood filler, gave the whole piece a good sanding and primed with Zinsser primer. This primer is stinky, but is the best I’ve found for prepping high use furniture and/or furniture of questionable origin. Two coats of paint (I need to do a third now that it’s upstairs), lots of handle polishing with Brasso and the piece looks much better.
Now the floors need a new coat of paint (and four years later the door frame still needs trim). Never ending projects in this old house. But at least we didn’t have to go back to Ikea.
In other news, I’m selling a lovely teal dresser and small desk, if you’re local.
Linking up to Remodelaholic this week.
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