Number Fifty-Three: Antique Inspired Secretary Desk

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Hi everyone!

I'm so excited to share this antique inspired secretary desk with you. It's been such a long time coming as I tried to figure out how I wanted to refinish it and where it could fit in my home.

To back up a bit, I purchased this desk about a year ago from a reader who lives in the next town. It was a great price even for having significant damage and I have always wanted this style of desk, so I was determined to find a home for it!

You'll notice the actual desk portion is broken because it was used without the support arms. Sadly, it was beyond repair.

This has been a really stressful year for me and one thing that amplifies my anxiety is clutter and having too much around me. I've purged and sold and donated and reorganized so much, to the point where I no longer needed my big IKEA Kallax shelf anymore (seen here) It went to a new home this past weekend giving me the perfect spot for both this desk and a little entryway/drop zone situation.

Here were my inspiration pictures for this piece. I wanted something really time worn and with closed upper storage.

Source Unknown

Source Unknown

I started by taking the original hardware I wanted to save (little knobs and some hinges and sprayed them in a satin black). Next, I removed stickers and the cork board backing and sanded the entire piece.

I removed the glass and insert from the doors and replaced with plywood that I sanded smooth. I attached them to the door frames with mending plates.

I built a new fold out desk surface, again with plywood, in its appropriate thickness, and attached them to each other with glue and brad nails. I decided to forgo the original hinge system and got new ones from D. Lawless Hardware.

The entire piece is painted in Rustoleum Chalked Paint in Charcoal, distressed, glazed in black, and waxed to seal it.

You can see that I got rid of the original vintage hardware, which felt too dated in the wrong era for the look I was going for, along with the decorative pieces around the locks. While I decided to not replace the latter (again, going for that antique look), I did get these beautiful new bin pulls (seen here).