Dressing Table Completed

It's taken a lot longer than I expected due to health reasons, but it's finally done. (Except for some fine tuning).  

The brass ringlets on the feet were the biggest challenge to me, not the rusty screws that broke and remained in the holes, nor the ones where half the head broke off, but by some good fortune I was still able to remove.

These lovely things were so tarnished, that even brasso just bounced off them with no effect.  I tried the boiling method, nada. Ketchup..nope.  Coca Cola on the other hand cleaned them fabulously, with the help of my little wire suede brush.

I'm so pleased, as I really wanted to use them to hide the join of the new feet. Since one of the castors was seized and the other broken, there was no hope of keeping them.  The beauty of the rings is that they have a lip inside, one part fits the table leg and the other was hopefully the perfect fit for the new feet.

First thing I did was clean the whole desk, followed by removing all that could be removed. Top drawer units came off, as did the back lip.  Took out the front drawer and the two panels.  Removed the castor feet, this required a bit of effort.

Next I sanded down the whole thing.  The top I took back to the natural wood, filled in the holes with wood filler and stained with antique pine before varnishing.  I did the same to the drawer fronts and panels.  I added a bit of wood to the front and two underneath for drawer rails, all of which were missing.

The legs I obviously had to sand by hand so that the paint would bind. I used Gloss paint from Woodies DIY, I have to say I hate gloss painting, but this was so easy to apply.  The first coat just got soaked up, so I let it settle for a day or so before applying the second coat.   Waiting for everything to dry fully is not one of my strong points, but it has to be done.  Since I was doing this outside, I was also hoping that it wouldn't rain! Of course the second coat was done indoors for 2 reasons, it rained and it turned very cold..... no good for painting.

For the new feet I bought pine knobs, stained with antique pine then varnished same as the top.  I had to drill bigger holes into them and made my own dowels to fit, because I came home thinking I had some, only to find out that they were too small.

I also wanted a really cool liner for the drawers, seems to be plenty choice in the States, but here appears to be very limited.  You could use a nice wall paper or wrapping paper.  I just went with a Nordic folk print design, which I tiled on paper and printed out.  For the small drawers this is easy but for the big on I had to use 4 sheets and glue the tiles together.  I could use sticky back plastic to protect the paper, but for now and the photos this is it.

So just to remind you, this is how it started off, very rough and a bad paint job.

And now it has been turned around into my little treasure, and is a keeper for sure.  If I put a mirror standing in the center it can be a dressing table.  Or I can use it as my craft desk as it is.  I'm really pleased at how it turned out.

So keep your eye on Shabby Shik Emporium and you might find a little gem too.  Don't be afraid to ask if they have project pieces. You can find all the links to them in my other post.