A few years ago, I found out that my younger sister, Nina, and her husband were expecting their first child! Of course, the entire family was ecstatic about their news, but it was quick for Nina and Zach to come to the realization they needed to more space, be closer to her mother in law (and me, but she won't admit it) and decided to sell their home. Knowing my sister's egregious sense of design, I graciously forced her to accept my help to renovate and stage her home to be able to sell the home for the most profit in order to find a larger home for their growing family.
Once we had the renovations completed, we were fast approaching the established list date and in need of getting her cozy three bedroom home staged allowing us the ability to have pictures for the listing and open house.
Early in the project, it was clear that all of her "belongings" needed to be burned or banished, if donated she would need to apologize to whoever ultimately took possession. Also, this gave us a great opportunity to get them packed up and all their things put in storage, especially since I made Josh take a week off work to help in this endeavor. We wanted to help so she didn't overdo herself in her condition, I say just to make her eye twitch when she reads this.
In order to furnish and accessorize their home, I brought enough of the extra furniture I had around the house from old projects. Our dad decided to donate this chippendale style Queen Anne cherry desk and chair.
This desk had been my parents for as long as I can remember, but with my dad's recent retirement and need to downsize he no longer needed the desk. I decided we could set up one of the bedrooms as a home study and we could refinish the desk to have a bit more updated appeal.
I decided to paint the desk and chair a high gloss navy, recover the desk chair upholstered seat, and change/refinish the traditional brass pulls. Since we were going to paint and not stain again, I really only needed to remove the sheen of the varnish. I used thick rubber gloves, eye protection, and a mask. After laying out plastic, obviously weighing it down with the trusty trash can and folding chair, I was ready to get started. I removed the drawers, hardware and the upholstered seat from the chair. I used cut cloth to liberally apply Acetone which worked like a charm to remove the remains of 40 year old varnish on the top, but some of the less touched areas like the legs and chair needed additional attention with my handheld sander.
Generally, when I am doing a project like this I would check the weather and schedule a day when the forecast is favorable and set up my work area appropriately. Since we were really pressed for time, I had to deal with hand I had been dealt. From the time I had everything set up, painted its first coat of spray paint, the wind kicked up horribly! In a moment of pure brilliance I grabbed a large piece of plywood that would surely block the wind as I wait to apply the second coat.
Not five minutes later, my feeling of genius was depleted as a blast of wind knocked the plywood violently onto the desk, showering all sorts of debris and dirt on the freshly painted desk. Ignoring the feeling to drop the paint can and drive home immediately, we brought the desk in and resigned to the fact that we would need to wait for it to dry and then sand over the debris.
Ok... that was not ideal. Onto the upholstered seat!
It had been many years since I had seen this chair and, oh my goodness, this seat was beyond hideous! Also, there was no excuse not to have changed this fabric ages ago! After I badgered my father for not having done so I ran to Target and found a white linen shower curtain with gold metallic geometric design on sale for under $10.
I wrapped the fabric directly over the old fabric upholstered seat and made sure the direction of the fabric was straight and cleanly gathered. On the corners I made two pleats to accommodate the curves, and stapled the fabric on the back.
I used the same process as I had when refinishing my door hardware, separate post. I used medium grit angled sanding blocks to give a brushed finish to the hardware. Normally, I would keep an unlacquered brass with its natural patina, however these had been lacquered and just looked gross and dirty. I thought the brighter gold tone would give the desk a cleaner look. I used the trusty ole Phillips head screw driver to put install the hardware and seat and done!
My advice for this project... check the weather!
What do you guys think? Do you like the high gloss painted furniture look?
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