A Secretary Rescue Mission

This is why I'm doing this for a living. This is why I deal with blisters and bruises, skinned knees, and paint EVERYWHERE.

        The paint, seriously, is everywhere. Aside from being forever on the backs of my forearms, where I always forget to scrub, it's all over my driveway, my kitchen floor, in my hair, on the backs of my calves, and I tracked some into the dining room.  But it's still worth it, still completely worth it.

        This sorry sad little secretary limped down my driveway on Monday evening. One of my favorite pickers, Johnette, brought it to me unannounced, as she was visiting a friend that lives down the street. The price was right, but the condition was, shall we say, challenging. The top and bottom backboard were off, the fitted interior had come unattached and was rattling around inside, the lid was barely hanging on by one hinge, there were missing drawer pulls, and the fretwork was busted. Structurally though, it was fine. It was made by Maddox around 1940, and is solid mahogany, so I figured I should give it my best shot.

          The first step was to see if I could repair the lid that had cracked when someone had tried to repair the left hinge by forcing screws through that were too big for the pre-drilled holes. I glued and clamped the crack and waited with baited breath. The clamping worked perfectly though, and then the rest was a cake walk. I swapped the pulls out for pretty cove pulls, painted the case and interior, and then just took loads of pictures cause I'm basically in love with this secretary.