This summer while in Bay Roberts visiting my father Sandra found this old desk in his garage. She was immediately interested in restoring it, I agreed only if she'd help! Well, we got right to it and Sandra started stripping off the degraded finish right away!

The desk was built from solid hardwood, I believe Maple and was covered in a very tired orange stain which required a belt sander and 80 grit paper to start the refinishing process.

With the heavy cut complete we brought the desk home and I purchased a Milwaukee random orbit sander to complete the remaining steps. The desk was sanded with 120, 180, 220 and finally 300 grit paper to remove all of the sanding marks. Smaller nooks and crannies were reached with a detail sander attachment for my Dremel tool.

The original plan was to try and match stain to our bedroom set and finish with a water based varnish.

Unfortunately even with proper prep the maple hardwood wouldn't soak up much stain and would not get dark.

We changed up products and picked up a can of Varathane which has wood stain mixed in and set aside the oil modified Polyurethane for a future project.

This product worked much better, shown here with just one coat on the desk top.

The whole piece was finished with two coats of Varathane/stain product and dried to a perfectly smooth finish. New drawer pulls completed the project beautifully!

Cheers, MIKE