2 years ago, we had the extreme privilege of bringing a 100+ years old roll top desk back to life for a client.  Since that time, we’ve had the honor of working with over 100 clients to bring their pieces to life, but none so much a puzzle as that desk.

We were recently contacted by a client to restore their roll-top desk.  They had recently purchased one at auction, and knew it needed some repairs and work done.

We retrieved the desk from their dirt-floor, barn, in the open hay section, where the desk was placed after the auction.  After bringing it back to the shop in several pieces, we took a thorough look over the desk.  We discovered quite a bi of damage to the moldings around the file boxes, and a bit on some of the writing surfaces.  A good cleaning was followed by application of some glue to the damaged areas.  After clamping the sections affected, we moved on to sanding the surfaces of the file boxes, writing surface, and all the pigeon holes.  We matched stain to minimize some of the larger marks and scratches, and applied it to the entirety of the desk.  3 coats of semi-gloss polyurethane will provide protection for years to come.

Before reassembling the desk, we also had to address the issue of the rotted fabric holding the slats of the roll top together.  Each slat was removed and numbered for ease of reassembly, and a new piece of cotton duck was purchased.  the slats were carefully laid out on the new piece of duck, and adhered using a good adhesive.  Once the pieces were safely adhered, we applied a fresh coat of stain and 3 coats of semi-gloss polyurethane.  Once completed, we reassembled the desk and delivered it safely to its new home.