Sewing Desk Transformation

I don't really sew. I have made curtains and pillows here and there, but it has always been straight lines and no patterns. Last year the teachers at Gavin's preschool asked if I would help them make 30 graduation gowns for the kids to wear at the 4 year old end of year program. I'm not sure they realized how limited my sewing skills really were... I figured it wouldn't be that hard, they just wanted something simple and it was indeed a bunch of straight lines, but it took a really, really long time to make 30. In the past when I have tackled a sewing project I've just brought the machine to the kitchen table, done my project and put it all away. It became clear after about the third gown that my set up would have to change. I ended up putting a card table and folding chair up in our bedroom to use as a sewing table. The gowns were done in May and the table stayed as I found other fun projects to do. I realized that my little sewing nook would have to become permanent and the folding table just would not do. So off to craigslist I went, searching for a trash to treasure project. I found an awesome sewing desk made by Wanamakers from the 1930's. The guy lived right around the corner and was asking $20. I offered him $10 and he took it. It was in bad shape, there were tons of dents and gashes in the top and it was scratched up all over. But it was just what I was looking for. I sanded it down, filled in the gashes with wood filler, primed and painted and polyurethaned. I even went to Goodwill and found a chair for $5 that I painted and made a cushion for. I am pretty proud of how it turned out after all of that hard work. But now that it's done, I am looking for another project to take on!

These are my before pics: (I had already sanded one of the drawers)

See how badly scratched it was?

After some TLC, it has a whole new life:

Maybe my favorite part are the fabric lined drawers