Refurbishing a Desk

A few months ago, i bought this old desk that i thought would be the perfect size to fit in the little corner of the living room. That would be where I work when I have to work from home until my office is ready upstairs (which could be a while since it's on the low priority list).  

I love the curvy design of the legs and it was structurally sound, so for $30 bucks, it was a good deal in my books! Here is the original posting from the seller

when I brought it home and put in the chair, it was a bit too short to fit my legs under.  

Fast forward about four months and a lot of uncomfortable sitting before we finally had time to squeeze this project into our renovating schedule. 

First I wanted to take the bars on the bottom off and extend the legs from there but after taking off one bar, the hubby convinced me it would be easier for him to just attach something to the bars instead.  

So I came up with this design

As you can see the stain was faded and dull and there was chipping.  I gave it a light sanding before adding the new stain.  I had Cabot stains on hand from staining the doors, so i mixed Red Mahogany and Brown Walnut together to get a reddish brown.

After two coats

The circles are for a project i'll post later, just killing two birds with one stone :)

I wanted to add some pazazz to it, so i decided to use gold leaf paint and highlight some of the details.
For the surface I taped off to get clean lines but for the legs and drawer fronts, i just a drew free hand.

(the color here looks orange due to the light)

I applied the gold with a small brush

I am impatient so i did not wait long before peeling off the tape (one hour at most).

Now some After photos of it in its little corner :)

I paired it with the bamboo chair that I upholstered in the same faux leather as the coffee table.  I love how the curves on the legs mimic the ones on the desk's legs.  Of course only I appreciate this, i pointed the similarity out to the hubby and got the "whatever you said, honey" look. 

I haven't decided if I will keep it here or move it to my office later on.
What do you think? I love fast refurbishing jobs like this one, so much gratification for not a lot of work!