Roadkill Rescue ~ Delightful Desk, part 2

As I said in the previous post, this reveal has been a long time coming. Beckie at Infarrantly Creative inspired me to start crafting again last year, and I saw a soon-to-be-beautiful desk out on a neighbor's curb right after hearing about Beckie's Roadkill Rescue party. Perfect timing! "Where will we put it?" was my husband's first (and only, bless him) question. Turns out, we actually needed a work area for my husband at home.

We were on our way home from church when we spotted it. Too be fair, it was less "spotted" and more "espied" -- every curbside trash heap came under scrutiny in my efforts to find something, anything to make over. This looked perfect, ripe for rescue: water stains, gouges, graffiti...it was even missing hardware!




We checked to see how the drawers pulled out (just fine) and noticed this inside one of them:


Free pen cap! No, no...and not the "vintage" contact paper lining the drawers, either. It's hardwood, people!!! Score! The only downside to this treasure was the horrendous stench.


Pee-yew! Whoever owned it before must've been a chain smoker, because this thing smelled absolutely disgusting. If we'd had a garage, the desk would've lived in there...but we didn't. I honestly got migraines while we waited for good enough weather to take it outside. And let me just say, there are a zillion-and-one opinions online for how to get smoke out of wood furniture, but what worked for us was a combination of stripping off the finish and then sealing it back up. No more smell!

On to the stripping. First, the contact paper had to go...and it took some of the laminate with it. We also found the aforementioned pen cap, an unsharpened pencil, a penny, and two charms in the drawers. And lots of spider webs. Ick.


On my birthday, my fabulous hubby borrowed his dad's power sander and stripped the desk down for me.



He even did all the details and spindles by hand!



To keep him from getting distracted, I set a task master over him.


6 month-olds are impossible to bribe when you're the non-lactating parent.


He did ask to be a little closer to the action, though.


Can you hear the whip cracking? Whh-chh! (And no, he couldn't reach those scissors.)


Put your back into it! Whh-chh!


Don't think I didn't appreciate all of his hard work! Ewww...dust.


All finished! After hours of sweaty, dusty work, we thought about just clear-coating it. DH really liked the shabby look. But I had a spray painting jones, so I won.



Stay tuned for part 3: painting!