Roll Top Desk Reinvented

Today I am sharing with you a reinvented piece of furniture – an antique roll top desk that we have taken apart and made several projects from! Let’s dive in!

for the love of vintage

Here at Reinvented Delaware, we love vintage and antique furniture but the truth is, some of the pieces we come across just aren’t practical for many of our homes.

Like this style of desk – the roll top. Work papers and messes could be hidden by simply rolling the top section downward. In today’s world, much of our work is done on a desktop or a laptop computer so we don’t have the messy paperwork spread out.

free roll-top desk?

So what’s a girl to do when she is given one of these desks for free??? She takes it apart and reinvents the whole thing! I did forget to take a photo of the exact desk we have but the one below is very similar to what it looked like. Solid oak and dark wood, original hardware, and all the pieces except for the roll-top section.

where is my camera?

I can’t show you the whole process of taking it apart, (that da-gone camera is never in my hand when I need it!), but I can show you the sections we took apart. I will share more on the other sections in future posts. Here is one of those sections – well actually, there are two similar sections but I am only showing one.

This is one of the base cabinets that were on either side of the roll-top desk. One of the base cabinet sections has a door and one drawer, the other cabinet has four drawers.

repairs on this roll top desk cabinet

The piece has been reglued, patched, sanded and thoroughly cleaned. You’ll hear more about that in the video. And, yes, I realize the top is missing! Hubby built some farmhouse style tops to replace the top section of the desk. We have big plans for the writing surface of the desk and I can’t wait to share that with you!

check out those drawers!

Here is a close up of the gorgeous joinery on the drawers. This is called Knapp Joinery and helps to date the roll-top desk to the mid to late 1800s! The sides of the drawers were pretty messed up with old stain and varnish so they had a quick sanding to clean them up. Sorta like exfoliating 🙂

Watch this short video to see how I prepped and painted this custom piece! You will see that I am using Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint in Typewriter and a Zibra Brush to apply the paint.

Parts of the video have been sped up to save time and just for fun, I left the sound on! Fast-talking makes me chuckle 🙂 I hope you enjoy it too!

thanks for stopping by!

I hope that fast-talking made you laugh! We all could use a little more laughter in our lives, right??

Thanks so much for stopping by for this quick look at the repurposed cabinets we are working on! I will share more of this project soon!

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