I found myself at Thrift Town headed to the sporting department when I stumbled upon a large wooden desk that really caught my eye. I don’t have an immediate need for a desk in my home, but I found myself coming back to this piece over and over again for a few reasons. 1. It was a solid, heavy piece that was created out of real wood. 2. It looked to have been hand-crafted as it consists of many small cut pieces of different types of wood. 3. It was only $15.99 and intact structurally. It just needed a little TLC to return it to it’s original glory.

Here’s the before, untouched shot of the desk:

I really loved the actual composition of the desk and wanted to see if I could get it back to as close as possible to it’s original form.

I sanded the top layer where it clearly had the most wear and tear.

After that, I applied a clear coat of wood stain in hopes of bringing the original wood tones out.

Very happy with the results! Total rehab time about 2 hours. Total cost $25 includes cost of desk purchase and wood stain.

Happy thrifting!

Gina Doglione-Nielsen is featured every week on Good Day Sacramento’s Thrifty Thursdays, and owns GNJ Consulting which handles Public, Social, and Media Relations for Thrift Town Stores. Gina lives in Northern California with her amazing husband Josh, and is constantly on the go with three “very active” and “strong personality” bambinos; aka Team Nielsen, and loves every minute of it.