Striped and Fabulous

My dear friend Jess spotted this desk on frame for me at the ReStore last week. She knows my style and correctly suspected this would be a prime candidate for refinishing.
       The desk is not incredibly old, one of the newer pieces I've worked on in a while- maybe from about 1990? But it's solid oak and the looooong lean cabriole legs have all the elegance of a mid 18th century desk on frame.
        The runner for the drawer had come unattached so I re-glued and screwed it to prevent the wibbly wobbly madness that was making it run poorly and get stuck. I removed the top from the frame and slid out the backboard in order to paint the interior in a custom mixed cool gray called Foggy Tuesday- inspired by my visit this week to Wells Maine and the lovely foggy beach there. The exterior is a custom mixed yellow that sits somewhere between mustard and faded gold. I've named it Folk Art Yellow, as it's a color I've seen time and time again on mid 19th century pieces presented for sale by some of my favorite folk art dealers including Jewett-Berdan Antiques and  Olde Hope Antiques. My Folk Art Gold does hardly justice to the real-deal worn and aged paint surfaces you'll find in their inventories. *drool*


         If you do one thing today, click on both those links and enjoy the spectacular awesomeness that is their inventories. It's the stuff dreams are made of.