Friday, August 6, 2010

Before & After: The Writing Desk

BEFORE I found this gorgeous little writing bureau while trawling the haberdasheries of the northern suburbs with talented creative Narina of The Crazy Aunt Company. We had a wonder in Die Handelshuis, a second-hand furniture store with everything from ceramic dogs, authentic leather biker jackets to huge velvet love seats dying to be recovered and placed in a trendy, sexy Cape Town bar. For sustenance, we stopped in at the coffee shop called La Cute at the back of the dusty shop, for some moer koffie and cinnamon pancakes. And there was the writing desk... We both fell in love with it instantly! It has such gorgeous proportions and personality. Sadly (or happily since it led to a new project), the paint job had much to be desired...

AFTER Removing the wooden knobs that we wanted to keep their lovely, rich, worn brown colour, we sanded the cupboard down with a small hand sander, until it was really smooth and some of the wood was exposed. I painted a coat of white oil paint and we sanded it again, exposing some of the blue and wood, making it look weathered and distressed.

It's great to have somewhere to store paperwork and unattractive, miscellaneous files and cables, as well as having all our stationary in one place. This little writing desk is the perfect addition to our small study that has a simple trestle table, dominated by our computer and printer, and a modern square-framed book case.

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