Oh yes, I think I paid around $125, maybe $150. Probably too much, considering it's condition, but I fell in love with the curvey drawers and claw feet!

After seeing the rest of your room, I agree that black is the best color choice. You can rub off the edges to reveal the wood underneath.

Imagine how cute it would be with bubble glass.

OOOOOOH, bellaflora! Good idea. Some cute decorative glass.....hmmmmm.

I snapped this pic to better show the position in the room.

Here's another look.

EDDIE ROSS a blogger, did this to his.

Jim

Before & After - A Stylish Secretary Makeover
When it comes to furniture, secretaries are a New Yorker's dream. There's plenty of storage space, plus a work surface that folds down for all those overdue Thank You notes. Modern versions abound, but I prefer one with a bit more history to it. Take this Chippendale style secretary I found at a consignment shop in Princeton, New Jersey.

I loved the shape, as well as its scale, and I knew it would fit perfectly in my bedroom. What I didn't love was the red mahogany tone of the veneer. It just looked dated...and dusty! These pieces were mass produced back in the 20s and 30s, so the finish really wasn't that precious. All wood, you know, isn't created equal, especially when it's a veneer! A fresh coat of paint would take care of that. The other thing I loved about it was the fretwork pattern on the doors, but if you're like me, you don't always want to display your business for the world to see. (Just most of the time!) Replacing the glass with mirror would be the perfect solution.

When the next weekend rolled around, I headed up to the roof, dismantled the secretary and got to work. As you can see, I started by sanding it down with a fine sand paper, just to scuff up the surface and give the paint something to adhere to. For the primer, I used a shellac-based product called Zinsser. I love it because it dries super fast. And it prevents any dye from seeping through the top coat. Check out the final result!

For the paint color, I chose one of my favorites: Farrow & Ball's All White. I use it on everything. The mirror I had cut to size for $20. The easiest way is to take the original glass with you. That way, you'll always get a perfect fit. With the shelves now hidden behind mirror, I could make all the mess I want, and it would still look just as pretty! Fold down the desk, and I have plenty of storage, plus the perfect surface for writing letters or working on my laptop.

As a collector, one thing I've learned over the years is to be fearless. Just because something'ÃÂÃÂs antique doesn'ÃÂÃÂt mean it's precious. Don't be afraid to alter a piece to make it your own. Strip it. Sand it. Recover it in fabric you adore. Like I said, all wood is not created equal. If a chair's lines are good but you're not in love with the finish, paint it another color and you'ÃÂÃÂll probably be much happier with the result. I know I am.

1.) I LOVE the pic chijim posted...drop dead gorgeous.WOW! Thought this look would not go in your room, but then I noticed that the woodwork next to fireplace looks light(painted?) Since it's next to this woodwork, maybe match it? Might still be too light and beachy a feel, though.
2.) The best part of this piece, IMO, is the lovely fretwork on the doors. I would keep it closed to show this off, and go back to the glass. The original wallpaper backing was so busy it interfered with the fretwork, and the chickenwire has this same effect, but to a lesser degree. Again, IMO, natch:>)
3). I bought this EXACT same piece for my daughter and painted and glazed it in that exact shade of green, LOL! 'Antiquing' regained popularity in the early 90's, with all sorts of kits from RL, etc, available...along with other special-effect painting(leather, suede, etc)kits.
I paid 100$ at a garage sale. Have seen many in great shape and original walnut finish for 3-400$ here in So.Ca. I've been tempted to re-do hers in black, but seeing the chijim photo she may have to think about going light...somewhere! Knowing reno, as we've come to, I'm sure she'll make up her mind overnight and have it done in a day or two! I'll like it whatever you end up doing.And Happy New Year all! :>)LC

chijim, what a GORGEOUS piece!

Good to know I can re-purpose the secretary at a later date, or in another room, etc. That cream is drool-worthy.

I'm not so much feeling the chicken wire, either. Plus, this LR is more formal than my den, so I think I'll go back to glass, though I'll probably keep the doors open anyway, as the little dorky vignette makes me smile, and the light from the lamp lets me see to write.

I'm still leaning black, as I love love love black and green, and seeing the frame painted black with the green toile poking through would be just yummy.

Holy cow, mjlb, I don't know how I missed seeing your posts with the different colors! Thank you so much! I really, really really like the black still!

Why aren't you painting yet? LOL :-)
Is this what you have in mind? (except w/ the green toile in the back)

{{!gwi}}

Renofan, you got a fabulous deal, that is a perfectly gorgeous little Chippendale secretary! Chippendale knew what he was doing and the fretwork is sufficiently exquisite and needs no help, so I'm also all for removing the chicken wire, which (please don't take offense) is bringing it down.

I saw the bottom part of a secretary like that at the Uncommon Market in Dallas, they had painted it a rich matte black with just a hint of being old/distressed, and did it ever look beautiful. I almost bought it even though I have absolutely no place for it -- and that was without the top. I think it was about $600.

I think there's supposed to be at least one shelf in there, did it come with one? Bluntness alert: the arrangement you have in there is very nice, but is a little tall.

Great find, congratulations! I'd buy it in a minute for that price.

I vote for the cream, it's gorgeous.

OK, am I the only one wondering how can you move on to a new project when I haven't seen photos of the yellow kitchen cabinets yet. I admit to being away for a week on vaca, but can't believe you got it all painted and posted while I was gone.

So, I do like the black with your other furniture in the FR, but I want to see the kitchen!!!

Now that I've seen the rest of the room - and your to-die-for black piano - there is no question: BLACK!!

And no chicken wire. Another alert: could the lamp be a little shorter? Maybe remove a book or two? Looks like it's too close to the top and robs the look of space. Just a thought. Plus, it would show a bit more of the toille.

LOL! We went out of town for Christmas, so I wasn't able to start the kitchen cabs yet. Had to focus on a smaller project in the interim. I'd be painting today, except it's my son's birthday and we have family in town.

Alas, all painting will have to wait until everyone's gone!

As far as the shelves, yes it came with two, but they were basically useless. There was no way I could arrange them and have it look good. Either they were too close together, or too far apart, and short of drilling new holes (which I'm entirely unwilling to do), I couldn't arrange *anything* on the shelves that didn't look ridiculous. Plus, the shelves are extraordinarily narrow, so real books barely fit.

For now I need the lamp up on so many books because if goes lower it gets right in the way of the brass candlestick that's absolutely staying. I really need a taller lamp in there, IMO, but until I get one, the stacks will have to work.

Other than that, the arrangement is pleasing in person, and not something I'll likely be photographing for a magazine entry or anything, LOL! Part of my ongoing decor mantra, "Finished is often better than perfect".

As soon as the guests leave and get the first coat of paint up, I'll post pics!

I'm not so much feeling the chicken wire, either

I'm been wanting to post all afternoon that I think the chicken wire distracts from the fretwork.

I love the toile you used. I also love the mirror in Jim's example.

I love Black and now I wish I had a place to put a secretary. Truthfully I am drooling to stumble on something that I can paint and revamp to make me a 48" kitchen pantry that will accomodate all my small appliances.

Alicia

"...my ongoing decor mantra, 'Finished is often better than perfect'."

Renofan, that is such a wonderful motto, and I hadn't thought of decorating in that light before. I'm adopting it!! and thank you for sharing it.

I have been checking in looking for the yellow kitchen as well. No pressure though, see you started something.

Oh believe me, I'm totally waiting for all of the guests to leave, and then my yellow kitchen will begin!

I may be able to get one side done this weekend with DH's help.

To my (and his!) utter amazement, he walked in and said that he really, really liked the yellow. He said it surprised him how much he liked it, and rather thought he'd just have to live with yet another of my decorating whims. That made me even *more* eager to get started, but I've had to make myself stop so I'm not a horrible hostess!

(Here's some tea, now pardon me while I do another coat on my secretary.....)

I like the idea of a different color, but not sure about black. How about a red distressed to show black underneath. The red similar to the color of your pillow fringe on your sofa.

I'm also not crazy about the chicken wire as it seems so busy with the scroll work.

Lyfia, the pillows are maroon-colored. There's no other reds or maroons in the room, other than a few bits of color in the rug. In fact, the pillows are left over from my last house that had red brick floors in the LR.

I love red, but because there's not really any other substantial red pieces, I don't know if it would work in this room. (though it would be yummy with the reds that are in the toile wallpaper!) Plus, I'm trying to sort of work *with* the piece, rather than completely re-do it. (That's not a design decision as much as it's an "I'm lazy" decision!) It would be super-easy to paint it black, but let some of the existing green rub through. That's only like 2 steps! I do like green, but this is not an attractive green, so I don't think I could live with just touching up the scratched off parts.

Hopefully I'll be able to just dive in and get to work on it. I usually find my "groove" once I'm in the swing of things, and then it's pretty easy to make it look good, or at least better!

maybe paint it black and let some red show through. My short cut to this is to only paint red on where you intend to do the rubbing (like on the edging and details), then paint black.

I love that secretary. Whe I was a child, I spent many happy hours at my grandparents' secretary, which looked just like that one. I always envisioned it with a Chinese red glaze.

And if you ever tire of it, I'll be happy to take it off your hands;-)

I think it's beautiful and black would be a great choice.
If you sand down all that old paint, you'll get a much better look on the paint job. I think it should have a shelf in the inside with secretary type stuff inside, Books, wonderful bookends, a clock, a couple of small family photos in wonderful frames etc...
If you go to a stained glass shop, you can spend an entire afternoon looking at bubble glass, wavy glass, French and German antique glass, which would be stunning. I love the German antique glass. Try moving to the left a few more inches.
Again it's a great looking piece, and when done it will be stunning.

Another vote for the black. I think it will give balance to the room since you have a black piano on the other.

Love your decorating mantra. : )

Jim, that secretary is gorgeous! I really need to find a CL in my area (So.Cal) There must be one or at least a great goodwill store.

Diana

Reno

I just love following your threads & reading your advice on others - So full of energy, creativity and ideas

OT ? - Is that an H&M chair - I ? because it looks similiar to my sofa

Also, I 2nd vote on no chicken wire & love how Jim's example came out. Will be watching to see your creative energies

Reno, just one more thought that I forgot to mention last night. That little piece of wood detail -- (in the center just above the doors), think about gold leafing it. I did it for the first time on my chair in the living room, it has a shell in the center of the bottom frame, I gold leafed it, and it looks pretty cool.
I think it would be a unique touch on your piece, if you go with the black.
Joann

Great photoshop, suero! I do love red, and have done another red re-do in another room, but I'm just not feeling it for this room.

I did a very rough pshop of how the piece would look in the room if red, and it just stands out way too much, and not in a good way. The red would be jarring in here, IMO.

Joann, if I could move the secretary at all, I'd love to move it over some. But if I go any more to the right, it covers a floor vent and prohibits the opening of a cabinet. If I go any more to the left as per your suggestion, there wouldn't be enough room to walk by. It's tight as it is, with only 20" of walkspace between the open secretary and the back of the sofa table.

As far as the shelves, trust me when I say they ended up just looking silly. This is a *small* secretary, and the interior portion where the shelves go is only 27" tall, 27" wide, and about 6.5 inches deep. When I had the shelves (and later just "shelf") in there, the spaces were soooo tiny that I could only put very small items on there. It ended up looking junky and cluttered, but not in a cute way.

I've since seen other secretaries in antique stores, etc., and have been shocked at how small mine is in comparison. If mine were bigger, I could get away with arranging more like a traditional secretary.

I've decided to go ahead with black, with some of the green rubbed through. One, because it will be very easy. And two, because it'll match the wallpaper that I love.
Three, the little cubbies that are inside are green, and it looks like it would be a royal pain in the carcass to paint them, so I'll be leaving those green. With black/green rub-through, the cubbies will hopefully look like a design element, rather than "Reno_fan was too lazy to paint the intricate little setup".

Joann, I do believe I'll do some gold leafing. I LOVE that look, and think it'll dress it up a lot!

Sounds like a good choice. I didn't realize the original paint was so binked up.

We're expecting to see this complete by the end of the day. Haha joking but you are super speedy so I wouldn't be surprised!

Well, it's not totally complete, but I thought I'd post progress pics.

After I got the base coat of black on, I realized how much I LOVE black painted pieces, so I decided not to do a green rub through, but rather I did a gold drybrush technique on the edges.

I wanted it to look like it had once been a beautifully gilded piece that had been sitting in an antique store for years and years.

I already LOVE it, and it matches my style much, much better than the green.

I still need to add the glass back in and drybrush the gold onto the fretwork, but here's how it's looking so far:

Drool.

Gorgeous.

ooo la la! You have the touch. The toile looks great in there too (it's almost complete with nothing but the toile).

Oh, I just love it in the black, and I wasn't sure I would. The gold rubbing adds so much--it really lends a nod towards the asian influence of Chippendale furniture. The toile paper really pops now and looks beautiful against your wall color. What a difference!

*jump up & down clapping hand*

OMG -- it looks just like the finish on a Habersham piece w/ the gold shown through!!

Love love love it!!!

Now can you bottle & send me some of that energy :-D

Wow. Would you show a closeup of the drybrushing? And PLEASE (begging) tell us how do did it? Now I need to find an old secretary on Craigslist!

Reno, did you use semi gloss? What brand? I have one a china cabinet I'd like to do. Your secretary looks soooo good. It was the best choice. Love it.

the black IS beautiful....

ML

Thanks all! It's DONE. Yay! Now I just have to let the paint cure so I can decorate it.

I need to get a key for it. Now that it's painted I'll probably keep it closed, as I love the look of it. But I'm wanting to hang a cute tassel on the doors, but can't because I don't have the key!

Yayagal, I used Sherwin Williams Enamel in Satin. It's fast drying, dries like a dream, and has the perfect painted-black-furniture finish.

Sue36, to dry brush the gold paint, I just took an old (fat) brush, dipped the edges in some gold enamel I have, dabbed it on a paper towel, and brushed along the edges in a back and forth motion. Then I go back over the surfaces and sort of drag the dry brush across.

It's not so much a rubbed finish, as the more you rub, the less of the black is seen. Dry brushing allows the black to show through.

(Up close it looks waaaay messier than it appears in person, and from a distance of more than 6 inches! I'm almost embarassed to post the closeups, as I never realized how bad some of the decorative finishes look up close!)

It's perfect! You chose exactly right, & don't even THINK that the closeups are bad - it looks GREAT!

Its wonderful. I love how you just jump right into these things .You have great taste.

WOW, it's gorgeous. I've been wanting one for awhile now after seeing Eddie Ross' blog where he painted one white. I see one similar on CL in my area but it's $400!! You did a great job!!

Here is a link that might be useful: secretary

I checked the being honest thread for your replies before replying here, so I hope that I am not coming off too strong ;)

I really love the black and gold. I think you did a great job as always. What did you end up doing with the cubbyholes ? Did you leave them green? Would you consider the time and work to paint them black as well? Why I am asking, because now that the secretary is black, the green paper is not really working for me :-/ I did not see anything on the photos of the rest of the room that would tie this green into either, maybe I just did not see it. I would do something in golds or in burgundy for the back but that is just me.
I hope that this was not uncalled for. Love your work :)

LOL! Punamytsike, don't ever worry. If I'm not "feeling" the advice, I just don't take it! No hard feelings.

It's funny, though, that you say that, because the minute I got it done I thought, "Blue toile wallpaper would be stunning in there, and would pull together all of my blue and white pieces that I have all over the LR. I even did a mockup of it:

However, for now, I do like the green. You're right that there's no other greens around, but it's so subtle (in person, at least) that it just acts as a neutral. Plus, once I get the decorations inside tweaked a bit more, you don't see as much of it.

I ended up refinishing the writing surface last night, too. I put the green cubbies back in, and I really, really like it (for now, at least!). I like that the green is just a little bit of the unexpected, and the secretary has that "changed over time" look.

I also had another toile wallpaper in reds and golds, that *would* totally tie into the LR, but it was just soooo predictable. It looked lovely when I held up the sample, but it just didn't seem to have any personality, IFYKWIM.

If I ever want to change it, it'll be a small job to paint the cubbies black, but for now I think I'll leave them as-is.

Here's the desk down before with the horrid yellowing, chipping white paint, and after stripping and restaining it:

You are right, Reno, it is not too bad at all. I am just not a green person, love it outside in the nature, but usually not as inside color ;)

and I do understand what you mean about little bit of unexpected. At the same time if you want just elegance...

Anyway, I am glad you have the other stuff ready in case you what change or are ready for it :)

Wow, you are so gifted! You know, you could put your talent to work for you and teach a class or offer your services. Especially in our current economy, people are going to want to know how to decorate their homes without a lot of expense.

BTW, I think the green is perfect!

I just came across this thread and have to say 2 things:

1) What a marvelous wonderful job you did Reno

&

2) Chijim: thank you for posting that gorgeous, gorgeous piece. Suddenly I'm into white furniture again but not so much as the type I was into 10trs or so ago when Shabby Chic hit hard!

Great inspiration pics - thanks to you both!

Fabulous job. I'm so glad you took out the wire. It mixed two very good but incompatible ideas, and you saw it and fixed it.
In case you haven't heard enough opinions...would you consider painting the interior fittings Chinese red? I think that would be a wonderful choice as well.

Rockin' Reno does it again! It looks fab!

Looks good reno! Quick question is the enamel latex or oil based? I am thinking oil but just checking. I curb shopped a desk that would be great with the same paint finish.
I love the inside. I imagine that by now you have drilled a hole in the back for the cord? I am thinking of doing that myself with a piece.

"Rockin Reno" made me smile:>) Very apt. too!