Vintage Secretary Bookshelf

My dear friends were cleaning out their apartment, getting ready to relocate to Australia. They asked me to sell this great mid-century piece for them... so I bought it. I thought this was an interesting piece and once refinished, had great potential. So began another project... (from Jan 2015)

I was so excited to begin this project, that I had forgotten to take a "before" picture, in its original condition. Oh well. You can get the idea of what it looked like. This piece was heavy and solid whitewashed oak. The pull-down door had a mortised lock, with the key, but no knob or handle. I was going to fix that. As you can see, I removed the doors and the hardware and as with most projects, began sanding each piece down to the bare wood. Once sanded, I painted a couple coats of white primer to help seal in any stains or other markings.

with primer.

ready for paint.

Next, came the inside shelf piece. It had been badly painted and had dried drippings and was peeling paint. So, this too had to be sanded and primed.

I applied about 3 coats of semi gloss antique white paint to all the pieces. To change things up a bit, I added a small back panel of grayish blue paint, to give some dimension to the inside. The shelf unit was placed back into its spot and screwed down.

 Once all the paint was dry, I reattached the hardware...

...and added my own special touch, this antique brass pull (just LOVE it). It matched the lock and hinges perfectly. (Special ordered from Amazon.com)

I then used 80 grit sandpaper and lightly sanded the edges, allowing for only a small amount of distressing. I actually left the distressed edges raw, I think it looked fresh and clean that way.

I cleaned the glass sliding doors and placed all the panels back in their tracks. The desk was now complete.

Total investment: $45
Time investment: weekend