It only took 10 years.... in 2024

But we finally found the PERFECT piece of furniture to complete a tricky corner of our house! This was my New Years project, and I wanted to write about it and share some of the pictures. It was definitely fun and satisfying!

For years, this one corner of our house had been a blank slate with various things attempting to fill the spot. It had served as a temporary home for my old desk, a storage space for an antique door (until a mishap with the cats sent it crashing to the floor), and most recently, an empty void that always felt like it was missing something.

Then Nathan, who basically runs our entire farm operation without an actual office, made a simple request: a dedicated space to organize his paperwork. His piles of papers were scattered everywhere, from filing cabinets to his parents’ house. “It would just be nice to have a place to sit down and write a few checks,” he said, “and put some important stuff away.”

My first attempt at a solution was a makeshift desk in the corner of the garage. But it was cold, crowded, and quickly became another catch-all surface. Enter the air hockey table. When we brought it home, this area had to go. We hauled it back to his grandma’s empty house, and that’s when he called me over, excitement in his voice.

“Hey, come look at this!”

In one of the back bedrooms, tucked away in a corner, sat a small desk with a hutch on top. It was a bit dated, with its brown wood and black splatter design, but Nathan saw potential. “This could be perfect for my desk,” he declared.

And he was right. We brought it back, and it fit the empty corner like a missing puzzle piece. Finally, the space had found its purpose, and Nathan had his long-awaited haven for paperwork and important things. At first, I didn’t love the brown dated look, but figured it would grow on me. I thought about painting it a more modern black, perhaps this spring when the weather got nicer.

Except less than an hour later, we realized..... how bad it smelled.

You see, Nathan’s grandma was an absolute chain smoker for nearly her entire life, and most certainly filled that house with smoke for all of her waking hours. Ironically when she moved to assisted living last winter she quit cold turkey–and hasn’t smoked since! (Probably adding years to her life!) However, the results of her terrible habit has ruined any chance of anything left in her home smelling remotely OK, including, sadly, the desk. Nathan and I both held our nose each time we came into the dining room. “Ugh, it’s AWFUL. We need to take it outside, NOW.” We knew this was much more than just washing the cabinet or putting baking soda in the drawers. The thing was cursed–filled with years of smoke right into the fibers of the wood. We pulled it out onto the back porch into the cold winter wind. The next day, I brought in one of the drawers to ‘test’ it out. Sniff sniff.... UGH. Still not good.

“I think the only thing we can do is paint it, honestly,” I said out loud. Nathan agreed, but told me it might not be worth all the trouble if we could just get a new desk instead. And what if it STILL smelled after we painted? I agreed, so I went online looking for the ‘perfect’ desk. And I was met with dismal results. Either the desk was too big, too small, too expensive, too cheap looking, not enough storage, etc. I started looking back outside to the old desk which had been perfect in every way except for the smell....and the color. And realized I was feeling motivated and needed to run with that feeling before it ran out.

I did some quick research online before calling into the hardware store. It was recommended to use oil based primer, the kind that seals in odors and stains. And I would paint EVERY SINGLE SURFACE inside and out. I pulled up the Ranger to the back door and loaded the desk into the back, hauling it over to our heated shop to let it warm up to room temperature after it had been sitting out all night. It still reeked of smoke, but I was still motivated to get this project done. I came back from the hardware store armed with a big paint brush and a can of the most heavy duty primer they sold and I went to work. I painted every nook and cranny, covering the inside, outside, backside and top.

I had planned on doing the final coat in black, but once I saw it in white… I started to LOVE it! I quickly asked a small online group of friends their opinion and the overwhelming response was to keep it white, due to the fact that it was close to other things that were white like the window and the trim. Painting it white would make it look more like a built in and not so cluttered and heavy in that corner of the room.

And so, without further adieu, here’s photos of my project from start to finish!

First attempt..... dated and smelly:

Final result.... bright and beautiful!

I absolutely love it and Nathan does too. He can quickly sit down and check his email, his stamps and bills stuff fit in the drawers, and the cute pothos plant on top was from my grandma’s apartment. The rest of the photo frames I swiped from other areas around the house and our last name sign used to be in our bedroom (where nobody really saw it) so it was moved over and I like it so much better here.

It felt great to start off 2024 with a project like this complete, and now Nathan will have a space all his own to do his work! (And he doesn’t use it a lot which is why it can still stay ‘clean’ and tidy since it’s out in the open in our house and still not an actual office.). But it works and that’s all that matters!