I have an old desk I’m restoring. It suffered some water damage but is a unique piece. There’s a couple areas I’m struggle with direction on. The top is a leather surface. Best thoughts on what to use to revitalize and clean it or stain it? Also, some of the design on the front of the drawers are damaged and I could either do some sort of repair or remove them.
Those wood appliques wouldn’t be too hard to match for repair patches. You might consider a contrasting material if you’re into the whole wabi sabi vibe.
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Kintsugi woodworking?
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I’d never heard of that but it’s quite cool, love the idea!
Really cool find!
re: the leather top: my go-to process for for leather maintenance is in three steps:
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Clean: brush away all loose dirt, follow by a cleaning agent like saddle soap.
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Condition: I’d suggest something like neatsfoot or mink oil. Note they’ll both darken the leather, so you might want to test in small areas first. There are other conditioners out there though.
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Protect: apply a finish layer (e.g. wax or a balm) and buff it out. Many choices here as well.
There are products which combine #2 and #3, so it’s kind of a personal preference thing. That said, the top looks pretty beat up so I’d separate the conditioning and protection.
I linked Tandy Leather because we have two stores in the area. You might be able to save a few bucks by buying elsewhere/online, but I’ve found the folks working there very helpful.
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Wow thanks - this looks like just the ticket!
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