Remember the little drop leaf desk that was so kindly donated to me by some friends?

Well, I wanted to give it an old, chippy, came out of a Victorian scientist’s lair, sort of vibe.  As if the drawers are filled with handwritten ledger pages full of notes about experiments and science-y stuff.

I think I succeeded.

After Ken re-attached the drop leaf, I gave this dresser a bit of a sanding and a cleaning.  Then I painted it with Miss Mustard Seed’s milk paint in Trophy.  As you can see, I got a lot of chipping, even though I had sanded quite well.

I pretty much loved the chippy look on the outside, but I was worried that the inside would chip even more since I knew I wouldn’t be able to do a good job of sanding inside those cubbies.  This lead to a rash decision to paint the inside with Annie Sloan chalk paint in Old White.  Nope, didn’t like it at all.  Looked so fresh and white.  All wrong for this chippy old desk.  So, I painted over that with the MMS Trophy with some bonding agent mixed in.  Still not entirely thrilled with the result though.  The bonding agent adds a little shine to the paint, and I don’t love that.

Some of this shine is the freshly applied hemp oil and will tone down a bit, but still … in hindsight, perhaps I should have just let it get chippy.

You can also see that the bonding agent changes the color a bit, making the grey a bit warmer.

I added some fabulous old metal drawer pulls to the inside drawer and the drop leaf.

But really, I don’t know that anyone would actually use a desk like this for its original purpose of writing letters (or taking notes on mad scientist experiments).  I think one would tend to keep the leaf up to admire the fabulous stencil.

One could still store important papers in the drawers, maybe sort bills using the cubbies.

Or just gaze at this desk and imagine a scientist tucked away in his garret in the center of Paris, making notes about his findings using ink and a quill, perhaps by candlelight.  Drinking absinthe and listening to Edith Piaf.

What shall be the fate of this lovely little desk?  It may make it into the Carriage House sale.  But as always, if you are interested in this one, let me know.