An Antique School Desk

OMG!  I have been trying to post this all day and Blogger has been down.  Don’t they know people have things to share?

Anyway…my sister-in-law’s friend had given us an antique school desk last summer and we finally got around to finishing it!  I am forever grateful for her gifting this beautiful piece of history.  Unfortunately, there was another school desk at the antique mall where we have our booth and it took FOREVER for it to find a home. I wasn’t really sure what I was going to do with it, but I knew eventually I would figure it out.  I would have kept it for my daughter, but we have no room for it.  Plus, my mother-in-law has one that was my husbands and I know he really wants her to have that one. Again, we just need to find the room for it.

Now I know…I should have before pictures, but I don’t.  Close your eyes for a moment (well, not literally or you can’t read) and I will describe what it looked like before.  The wood was the typical honey stained wood, the base was black, I just freshened it up with a new coat of paint. The desk and the metal on the chair was an almond color….but almond with apples painted across the front, you know where your teacher use to laminate your name in a colored piece of paper and then tape it to the front of your desk.  Cute…but just not my taste.

So one night, I was lying awake at 3 in the morning and it came to me.  My daughters school was hosting a Kid’s In Bloom Golf outing and hosting a silent auction to help raise money for the school.  It was a PERFECT fit!  We had been trying to come up with something that we could donate for the auction, but we hadn’t come up with the right item. This was it!  I would re-paint the desk and chair sides in black and a touch of copper hammered metal by Rustoleum. I had painted them cream last summer, but didn’t like the contrast with the black base and dark wood.  This is why the project got put on hold.  Then, I would hand paint a quote from Marie Montessori on the desk top (my daughter attends Montessori school).  What parent could resist?  We will find out after today!  Here is the finished results.