There is really nothing I love more than a really great BEFORE & AFTER. There is just something so satisfying about bring an old piece back to life again, rearranging a room until it is unrecognizable, or turning something tossed away in to a useful masterpiece. I was born with a knack for seeing potential - sometimes a curse (like when I can't pass up a "great deal" because "it could be turned in to a....", but mostly a blessing (like this vintage vanity that just needed a little lot of TLC).
Our daughter nick named it "the spider desk" because it had 8 legs -a title we found was ironically appropriate when we tipped it upside down to load it in to our van. It had apparently acquired dozens of 8-legged tenants during it's years of neglect in storage -ew!
But, I could see potential. Spiderless potential.
Yes, the mirror was missing and the hardware long gone, but it was built in the 1930s with dovetail joints and still stood on original wooden castors. A treasure! I knew it's vanity days were over, but it started to look like a great desk to me.
So after a good sanding (and by good, I mean endless) it started coming together.
These wooden medallions were selected from a local millwork shop to give the drawer fronts some depth and interest. Antiquing glaze over the paint highlighted the crevices to honor the simple round metal knobs.
I asked Mr. Steady to create a front panel with his router to match the horizontal striped panels at the base of the drawer sections. Once it was fitted in to place and painted, it looked like it had always been there.
The base was painted in a light dusty gray with an antiquing glaze finish. The top is coated in a slate blue/gray (one of my favorites!) and sealed with 2 coats of poly.
I even papered the drawers!
The final Before and After:
This one of a kind Farmhouse Desk is available for purchase locally.
More Rehoboth Farm products available here:
