diy wall Archives - Forever.Six.Acres

Hey, hey y’all! Soo excited to share this big project with y’all! I had been looking for a secretary desk for a while to put in the great room. Ever since I was little, I wanted a secretary desk, I’ve always thought they were so pretty! I love that you can just close the top and tuck everything inside away. I found this gorgeous solid wood secretary desk at a local antique shop, and I waited a full week before buying it. It is really old, and needed lots of work!

So I’m not sure about this desk’s background. There isn’t a stamp or writing anywhere on it to give me a clue about how old it is. What I do know, is that it’s solid wood, and there are many pieces that don’t match up very well, so I feel like someone made this in their shop at home. It’s very primative. Not a piece of vinyl on it! Which is exactly what I wanted, because I knew I could do the oven cleaner method on it since there wasn’t vinyl, except for that piece of vinyl leather. 😉

Supplies Needed

So after it home, I was able to check it out a little deeper than in the store. I realized then that this is going to be a lot of work! Haha! I needed these items for sure!

Wood glue (You might need, depending on how much work your piece needs)
Minwax Stainable Wood Filler
Barkeepers Friend (for cleaning hardware)
Easy-off Flume Free oven cleaner (I used about 7 cans total)
Sand paper (80 grit, and 120 grit comes together in this kit linked)
Scrub Brushes (in various sizes)
Bucket
Dawn Dish Soap
White rags
Dish Gloves
Tarp to cover flooring (if needed)

I’ve put links to as many of these products as possible to help you find the supplies quick and easy! Please know that I get a small commission from the brand if you purchase something through my link, but it’s at no extra cost to you!

First steps

The first thing I did was remove the hardware to clean it. It was still really cold outside, and I knew I could do this in the garage to hide from the cold wind, but still get good ventilation if needed.

On the back of f Bar Keepers Friend, there was directions to clean the hardware, and I followed those! I laid down my tarp, spread out the hardware, dunked them all in water, then sprinkled on the Bar Keeper’s Friend. Then, I let it sit for a few minutes, then got a white rag and started to wipe it all off. Once I rubbed off the powder, I dipped it back in the water, and dried it with the towel. There were a few tough spots I had to do again, but for the most part, it all came off the first time! I forgot to take photos, but I got lots of video!

I did take a before and after photo of one of the pulls. It doesn’t make them all perfect, but the Barkeepers Friend, really puts some life back into them! Also, I lost one of the little pull knobs for one of the small drawers inside the desk, and I’m pretty heartbroken about it! Hoping I find it in the driveway somewhere, or in the garage under something one day! *Fingers crossed*

before and after of the hardware dirty and clean

Secretary Desk – The Easy-off Way

So to make sure this was going to work, I did a test run on a small drawer. I chose to do the Easy-off oven cleaner method after seeing so many gorgeous projects refinished with it by @Vintageporch . Her blog has been so helpful through this whole process for me!

So I sprayed on a generous amount of the Easy-off on the front and inside of the drawer. My patience didn’t do me any good, cause I scrubbed it off with water and soap in about 10 minutes. This was the result. Got a good amount off, but not all of the layers of stain.

So, a few weeks later when the weather was much warmer, I decided to knock it all out! I did a generous coat of oven cleaner on the whole thing. Working in specific sections so I could time things out for the cleaner to sit longer. At first, the cleaner sprays on thick, but then it quickly becomes thin. Some areas work really quickly on the stain, and you can see it start to change color. Some images below show that!

Oven cleaner after sitting on the wood for about 5 mintues.

oven cleaner on the secretary desk — Oven cleaner on the back of the secretary desk.

So, one thing I learned, is that the longer the oven cleaner sat, the better! I let the oven cleaner sit for about 30 minutes before I started to scrub it off with water, and dish soap. I would occasionally dump out my bucket, and get fresh water and soap. Video below show that when I scrub off the oven cleaner, you can see that the stain starts to scrub off, but it doesn’t look as light as it will when it drys!

Scrubbing is super important!! It really helps remove the stain off, and it makes it easier for you to get in all those small detailed spots. The tough part with this larger scrubber though was getting the back and small spots on the inside of the desk. So I suggest purchasing a variety of sizes. I have some linked above! I used a toothbrush too, but I found that a grout cleaner brush worked best since the bristles are stiffer than a soft toothbrush.

Tip: Don’t dump it in your grass, I’ve heard that it will kill the grass. So I dumped it out in my rock driveway, where I don’t want the grass or weeds to grow!

scrubbing off the oven cleaner with water and Dawn dish soap

This last image shows how the desk looks after one layer of Easy-off and it dried completely. There were a few spots that I needed to go back and sand. I learned really quickly that scrubbing is very important. I had to do the Easy-off twice on the inside of the desk. There aren’t many photos for that process, cause I was too busy working on the project! Also the image above is so crooked because it was a screenshot of one of my stories on Instagram. *insert face palm*

Once everything has been scrubbed, it’s time for a good wash down. We used our power washer, but you could also use a hose. I felt like the power washer really got the cleaner and stain junk off really good! I let it air dry for a few days before I decided on if it needed more, or if I could move on.

Secretary Desk- The Tough Parts

Now, the Easy-off got a TON of the stain off, and it looked so much better. It was definitely an easy process. I decided to go over the larger area with a sander (80 grit) to get a even, smooth feel to it. I also had to use a LOT of 80 grit sandpaper from all the glue under the faux leather vinyl that was on the pull down desk. Using a scraper, I got the backing of the faux leather off, but the glue wasn’t budging. I even tired Goo Gone. Picture below is after scrubbing cleaner off, but before power washing.

scraping the faux leather backing off desk. — scraping off faux leather backing, but used a sander to get glue off.

For the glue, I used 80 grit sandpaper and sanded it down. This worked perfectly! I was nervous that it would look different since it was sanded down and not stripped with oven cleaner, but it looked the same.

sanding down glue — Sanding glue, you can see the glue and some wood filler on the bottom left corner.

A few other things that made this project tougher, was that this desk is soooooooo old, and it needed a lot of repairs. We used wood glue for many of the pieces that were broken. Some areas we were able to use a small nail to put it back in its place. One major thing we did was remove the little center cabinet inside. I realized about half way into this project, that my Macbook wouldn’t fit inside. Oops 🙂 !! Jeremy removed the little cabinet, which was much easier than I thought. Then I had to sand down that area again, so it could match the other areas of the desk. I personally don’t think I would have ever used the cabinet anyways!

Jeremy also fixed the back right leg, used some wood glue to glue some of the drawer bottoms back in place, fixed the left pull out support from wobbling all over the place.

To seal, or not to seal?

That is the question and I’ve learned my lesson! Ha! I really wanted to do a wax matte sealer, but the one I wanted was sold out everywhere, even in stores or on Amazon! So I went to my local Sherwin Williams, told them what I wanted, and the suggested this Minwax Polycrylic matte clear sealer! I tried it out on the bartop below our kitchen window outside, and I LOVED it! But when I applied it to the secretary desk, it changed the tone ever so slightly to the wood, and I was not feeling it. I wanted this piece to be light and raw looking. Even though it was a matte sealer, my artist eyes could tell a difference.

So I sanded down the entire outside of the desk. I left the inside with the sealer on it just because it will get lots of wear and tear. I’m sure I’ll have my cup of coffee next to me while working, and I would hate to spill something and it soak all up in the wood. Now, please don’t think that this sealer isn’t good. It’s just not what I wanted!

Final Refinish

As I am working on this post, I am sitting at my little mini office space in the great room. She fits so perfectly in this spot like she was always meant to be here. I have always struggled with decorating this space ever since we moved in. It never felt “right”. Now, it feels right! Tell me your thoughts on this process?? Have you done it, or do you have a piece you want to try it on? Comment below, and as always, thanks for reading y’all!

Board and Batten Wall

I’ve been wanting to do board and batten walls for a while in both of the boys rooms. It was a goal of mine to get them done over the summer since I would have more time. We could have done this while we were building, but it saved us money at the time. It was a project we knew we could do ourselves later on. It was so much fun this way, I really enjoyed including my followers on Instagram in the decision making process!

I plan to go over how we did both rooms, which is pretty much the same process, but I took better pictures of the process in Blaine’s room. So you might see some pictures of Liam’s room, or Blaine’s room.

Let’s get started!

Let’s get down to business here. Starting with materials needed!

Supplies we bought and used:

Brown Panel Board
12 ft Pine board
1X2 Treated boards
Minwax Provincial Stain
Sherwin Williams paint and primer in one 1 quart for each room
Mini Foam paint roller
Paint Tray
Painters tape
Angled brush
Nail gun

I have linked some of the direct products we used, but I couldn’t link all the exact ones. I will link similar products that will get the job done though!

Where to start???

First thing we did was measure. Both boy’s rooms are the exact same size, 11X12. Jeremy did the math because he is good at it! He first put one 1X2 board on the out side of the room, then worked his way in, to figure out how many boards he needed for it to evenly be spaced out. I think ours came out to be a little over 15 inches apart. But will be different for rooms that are different sizes! Here is a before picture of Liam and Blaine’s room!

Once we had the measurement’s down of were the 1X2’s would go, we cut nine 4ft 1X2’s. We put the brown panel board on first so their wouldn’t be any texture for where the board and batten wall will be.

We tried to measure the panel board out so when we put up the 1×2’s the seam would be behind one of them. Less Caulk work for us! 🙌🏻 Next, we took a measuring tape and measured out where all the the 1×2’s needed to be!

We used a nail gun to attach the panel board and the 1×2’s. We used about three nailed per board; top, middle, and bottom. We nailed in the board at the top to keep it in place, then used the level to make sure it was straight before we nailed middle and bottom.

Changes

Here is what we did different between Liam’s room and Blaine’s room. For Liam’s room, we put up the 1×2’s first, and for Blaine’s room, we put up the stained board first. The reason we changed this up for Blaine’s room was to make sure the 1×2’s where as far up as possible before attaching them so there wasn’t a gap where the boards met. Again, this less caulk work for us! We caulked the bottom up, but you can’t really see that area!

Although we didn’t have to caulk as much, it was a little harder to tape around the stained board! So this is what Jeremy says about situations like this, 6 in one hand and 1/2 a dozen in the other. It’s pretty much the same thing! But it was good trying it both ways to let you all know it can be done either way! It’s up to you!

Finishing touches on board and batten

We started painting after the caulk was dried and I sanded it to make it smooth. I chose Sherwin-Williams Rosemary green for Liam’s room, and Mindful Gray for Blaine’s room. I love the green color for Liam’s room. It is a little moody, but not to dramatic. I decided on a neutral gray color for Blaine’s room because you can see his room from the living room and I didn’t want it to stand out too much!

Both stained boards are pine wood and stained with Minwax Provincial. I felt like this stain brought a beautiful neutral and natural tone to their rooms. First we sanded down the wood to get rid of any rough spots, and to avoid splinters. We used a lint free cloth to apply the stain on the pine to create a light smooth coat. We did not seal it since it won’t be exposed to water or other things that could stain it.

I used a mini flocked foam roller which will give you the smoothest texture. As you can see, I lost my paint tray, so for Blaine’s room I used a aluminum cooking pan! A smaller angled brush will come in handy to get in between the creases and small areas. Sherwin Williams was so helpful in this process in deciding the colors, and picking out everything I needed for the paint and stain. Definitely a one stop shop for all that! And no, this post is not sponsored by them, I just love their customer service and quality of their paints! I even painted a bright green dinosaur on Liam’s wall, the same Rosemary green so it would match better! The other green was like a bright lime green, it definitely stood out! Haha!

Final pictures of both rooms below!

Blaine’s Paint color is Mindful Gray and Liam’s Paint color is Rosemary.

Small change, big difference

A way we saved money was making both rooms simple when we built because we knew we could do something like this ourselves! Both rooms look so different with this small change! It gave their rooms so much character with just a simple accent wall!

To shop the look of both boys rooms, you can find that info under my Shop with Me page! If you have any other questions or want links to some things, let me know! If you use this post to help you in any way, let me know! I would love to see what you created and share with others!

Have a great day y’all!