From Dresser to Desk ---The Hard Way

I inherited this dresser from my Mom. I had been thinking about buying a dresser to repurpose into a desk, and use the mirror for a trendy bathroom piece. This was just the thing.

I failed to take a photo of the before, but this is pretty much how it looked. Except up close you could see the 30+ years of hairspray built up on it. Here is the mirror unattached.

I used some household cleaner and tried to scrap the hairspray off. Fail. So, I used some mineral spirits and scraped and sanded.

Tried staining it after that. Fail. It was gummy, tacky, pretty much yucky.

So, enter the paint stripper and more scraping, more sanding. I was about to get upset folks. But, I kept going and finally got it to a point where I thought I could paint the the thing. And paint it I did.  FIVE coats of white paint. Two of which were primer, but the stain color still bled through. I just kept plugging away until I didn't see any brown (actually it looked pink) show through. I put one light coat of dark walnut stain on the top, then two coats of poly.

 After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, the paint and the poly dried and I was able to bring it inside the house from the garage. I set up my computer beside it, put the monitor on top and found a chair more befitting the lovely, than the black leather desk chair. But, something just wasn't right......

So, I added a cushion to the chair, and a pleated piece of fabric to the knee well to cover all the cords. Voila!! My new computer desk/workstation.  The only thing missing now, is a nice desk lamp and some wall art. That will be my next project.

Before

After