(scratching) (whooshing)
- Welcome to Mother Daughter Projects.
I'm Vicki and I'm here in my backyard
and I'm going to be sharing a before and after
piece of furniture that I refinished.
Recently the Builders Challenge
had a furniture flip component
and I thought, you know what?
I am gonna get this desk out of the garage
and I'm going to refinish it,
use those three weeks and refinish it.
And the reason why this was important for me to do
was I've had this for 40-plus years.
This is the first piece of vintage furniture
that I ever bought and it really kick-started my love
of vintage furniture, especially mid-century furniture.
I used this desk years, and years, and years.
And for some reason, oh, I know the reason.
The reason I stopped using it was
the little chair right here literally fell apart.
Couldn't use it.
The back of this desk fell off.
Couldn't use that.
So it got pushed to the garage.
And I also remember usin' it with Steph.
I actually made her a little birthday book
when she turned four, and inside,
there are pictures of her sitting
at this desk as a four-year-old.
So there were just a lot of memories wrapped up
in this desk and I thought,
let me just take these three weeks, refinish it.
Don't know where I'm gonna put it.
Maybe I'll leave it outside.
No, I won't do that.
But I do want, I do intend to use it and there will be,
I will find a place for it.
And I will enjoy it for many, many years to come.
Let me show you how I did this.
First thing I did was clean away
the old wallpaper lining of the drawers.
I used the heat gun to loosen the old glue
and then used a scraper to get up all the old paper.
Next, I needed to find a method of finish removal.
I wanted to try to avoid chemicals.
I tried scraping first,
as well as using a heat gun to soften the finish
without harming the wood underneath.
It worked, but it was so slow going.
Frustrated with the slowness,
I resorted to a quarter sheet finishing sander
fitted with 180 grit sandpaper.
The rest of the desk could not be sanded mechanically.
So all the bits were hand-sanded
or scraped with scraping tools.
This Purple 3M sandpaper in 180 grit
gave me excellent results.
The drawer fronts were beautiful veneer.
I wanted to keep them natural
and didn't wanna take the chance
that I might sand through the veneer.
So I tried this paint stripper.
After 24 hours, I scraped off the residue.
I was surprised that it really didn't
take off much of the finish.
I also tried it on the bead trim
as it was impossible to sand
or scrape off all the old finish.
Again, it didn't touch the finish, but it was a giant mess.
The desk organizer that screws
into the back of the desk was falling apart.
So I went ahead and took it apart
for easier sanding and refinishing.
I used a nail set to remove the brad nails from the pieces.
Once the desk was underway,
I turned my attention to the chair.
I cleaned it up with Krud Kutter
and then started the sanding process.
Those are chair parts sitting on top of the seat.
I had to completely take the seat support apart
and re-glue it as everything was loose and wobbly.
The seat needed to be reupholstered,
but I first had to remove the old fabric.
This thing was dirty and dusty,
and I'm definitely wearin' a dust mask
to help for this step.
After exposing the wood seat,
I did wash it down with a weak bleach solution
as it smelled old and musty.
Taking a break from all the sanding,
I cleaned up the drawer hardware with Quick-Glo.
The brass shined up beautifully.
A Dremel rotary tool fitted with a felt polishing pad
helped the polishing go a bit faster.
I decided I wanted a bit of unexpected color
inside the drawers.
So I used a variety of DecoArt paints
and the Mother Daughter Project color palette
to do a bit of paint pouring.
Paint was poured.
Then the drawers were tilted to be sure
the bottom was completely covered
and both were allowed to dry.
(gentle music)
Back to the desk, which after hours of sanding,
scraping, and ineffective paint remover,
was looking like this, splotchy.
I really, really wanted to keep
the look of the natural wood.
I used this pre-stain wood conditioner
to see if it would help the stain to go on evenly.
The wood conditioner simply wipes on prior to staining.
Time to add color.
I simply wiped it on and then wiped off the excess.
This particular color and brand thankfully
covered all those imperfections in the color of the wood.
(gentle music)
On to the top of the desk,
which I really wanted to look good.
(gentle music)
I decided to add just a bit of the stain color
to the fronts of the drawers.
I did end up sending them very lightly
with 400 grit sandpaper to finish cleaning them up.
To protect the finish inside the drawers,
each of them got a coating of epoxy
and allowed to dry for 24 hours.
Now they will be super easy to clean.
(gentle music)
On to the chair.
No amount of stain was gonna salvage the wood on this.
So a couple of coats of paint was needed.
I'm using Rust-Oleum Vintage Teal spray paint
in keeping with the age of the piece.
To tie the color of the chair to the desk,
I sprayed these parts
of the desk organizer in the same color.
This vintage piece of embroidery
had been in my stash a very long time.
I didn't do it, but I do appreciate the care
and skill that went into making it.
I added some vintage linen to the sides
to make it wide enough to fit the seat bottom.
I'm using my favorite Surebonder staple gun
to attach the fabric to the wood chair bottom.
Here I'm screwing the newly-upholstered chair bottom
to the chair through each of the corner blocks.
We found it was going to be easier to screw the back
of the organizer into place and then finish assembling it.
Some expertly-positioned brad nails, and it was done.
This took longer than expected as weather did not cooperate,
keeping the stain from drying in a timely manner.
Here we are applying the finish to the desk
with an HVLP sprayer.
I wasn't sure the finish would look good
as it looks spotty,
but once it was dry, it was just perfect.
I wrapped those painted pieces in cling wrap
as the finish I'm using is not compatible
with latex-painted pieces.
And here it is all done and ready for use again.
(gentle music)
What I learned.
This was really a challenge
and a real learning experience for me.
Every step of the way was a learning process.
And I'm very happy that I did this.
I did realize that because I was very emotionally-attached
to this piece of furniture that I really wanted it perfect.
And I really, really set out to stain it
rather than paint it.
So keeping that in mind,
I think I made some decisions that made it
a lot more work than it needed to be.
At the end I realized,
probably just could have scraped this finish,
sanded that lightly, stained it,
and it would been perfectly fine.
The chair was another matter.
After it was stripped,
it was obvious that it was not gonna be able to be stained
because there was a lot of variation
in the color of the wood.
So I was okay with spray painting that.
And one of the things,
biggest things I learned on this chair
was I had to take this chair apart.
And I was able to successfully do that,
which I wasn't sure I would be able to,
but then I had all these parts off of the chair
and I thought, "How am I gonna put this back together?"
Because I don't have the physical
strength to be able to pull those.
And then I woke up one morning thinking,
"Clamps, I can clamp this thing."
So I actually used some very long clamps, put them on,
put the glue in the joints and just tightened it.
And it went back together beautifully.
So sometimes the simplest thing is the easiest thing.
And that's actually one of my,
my favorite things about this,
a redo of this furniture was being able
to get that chair back together and use it again.
And yes, Steph is behind the camera videotaping this,
and she did help.
She actually helped me to put this back on the desk,
and also, she helped me put the pieces together
because as you saw in the video,
I had to take all of this apart.
So thanks for joining us and we'll see you next time, bye.