This stunning antique teacher's desk was a real labor of love for Cait from Little City Farmhouse! She chose Lazy Linen to restore it's former beauty.

I am so excited to share this piece with you! This desk has been a real labor of love. A client of mine asked me to refinish her grandmother's teaching desk and I was happy to do it! This piece had been sitting in storage for so long and needed a lot of tlc - here is what it looked like before:



And here is what it looks like now:



The first thing I did was scrape all the chipping paint off. I worked outside on a plastic mat and wore a respirator - safety is key! I gave it several good vacuums after that and a good wipe down. The top of the desk was split in several places in several directions and was beyond repair. I had a solid piece of oak from another antique teacher's desk that I stripped and stained to replace it with.



I gave the rest of the desk two coats of Lazy Linen - a beautiful grey white - fixing bleed through water stains with shellac between coats. I chose not to topcoat this piece as I used the All-in-One formula to paint it which has a topcoat built in. The matte finish lent itself really well to the age of the piece. Also, because I painted over raw wood, I wasn't worried about chipping.



I distressed the piece really well to bring out all it's character. My client is also a teacher so it's really special to be able to refinish a family heirloom along through a family of teachers!