I should have titled this post ‘Here’s what sucks about letting furniture sit outside for so long…’  After the initial coats of paint, I added a polycrylic layer on the top of the desk, knowing that it would be used and abused by a gaggle of pre-teen and teen-aged girls that raise havoc in this house.  Then I decided to leave it for a few days to ‘cure’.  Well, a few days became a few weeks and a few weeks became over a month.

I occasionally looked outside to see it there sad and lonely and cold in one of the wettest springs we have had in recent memory.  I consoled myself by rationalizing that it was on a covered porch and not getting wet.  Ha.  The stories we tell ourselves will be the death of us.

And because I have been travelling and working a lot and given that I’ve been writing an awful lot about things other than our house projects on the blog, I decided I was going to get something done today come hell or high water.  The desk seemed the easiest box to check since the painting was done.  All I had to do was put the hardware back on and the drawers back in and get my husband to help trade out the electronic stuff and voila.  This nightmare monstrosity of paper and wires and ugly chairs would be gone, right?  Wrong!

(Showing before photos sometimes feels like taking your clothes off in public.  Total humiliation.  Yes, we were living like this.)

Ahhh…best laid plans.  After I put the hardware back on the drawers I attempted, yes, attempted to put them back in the desk.  But the large drawer wouldn’t go in.  Nope, wouldn’t budge.  Was no where near fitting the space it had fit perfectly just…ummm…almost two months ago.  Apparently even though it didn’t get direct rain, it had absorbed enough moisture to swell the wood.  Lovely.

Brett came out to help me and after numerous attempts trying to shove it in, he resorted to what any red-blooded American male would to make something work; he hit with a mallet.  Hmmm.

Yeah, hitting it didn’t work.  Then he tried two different planer type things on the bottom and top of the drawer.  Nada.  Nothing.  Nil.  It was not budging.  Finally, I suggested my sander and yep…that did the trick.  We sanded down the top of the drawer on all sides and also the bar in the desk.  This actually took a lot of time, sand a bit, try it, sand a bit more.  This went on for about an hour and with a series of cursing that probably shocked the neighbors.  Good thing the kids weren’t around.

A big hands in the air hallelujah when it finally fit and I could start what I thought I was starting over an hour ago.  One of my objectives with the big desk switcheroo was cord management.  Now I am not one to usually fret too much about that kind of detail, but this tangled mess of cords had gotten under my skin.  I had seen a post on Young House Love about hiding cords in boxes so I bought these while file boxes from Ikea for the purpose of hiding cords and giving our prolific writer Ainsley a place to store her masterpiece manuscripts.

I cut a hole in the back for the cords to slide through and put the surge protector in the box.  I also twist-tied all the cords together and tried to hide them behind the desk leg.  Out of sight, out of mind!  Hopefully.

Here’s the great reveal…

I love the view of the forest when I am sitting at the desk.  The Eiffel Tower Eames chair is a reproduction I ordered on sale for $99 from Rex Kelly and I love it.  It’s sturdy and comfortable and it works perfectly with the desk and the white boxes.  It’s molded plastic and not fiberglass, so it feels a little different, but for the price, it works for me!

So full circle from the beginning of these desk posts, the family room/kitchen has gone from this:

To this:

I am going to look at these photos the next time I am frustrated and depressed about the progress to remind myself that it really does get there eventually.

Now, of course, I am just going to fixate on the linoleum and carpet that we intend to replace with cork.  Someday.

Tags: furniture, Ikea, mercer island thrift store, painting