I’m sorry if the title of this story has you hearkening back (or forward) to the treacherous scenes of a dentist’s office but I assure you, I’m not going there. I (with a knock on the table at which I’m perched) have never had a cavity so I’ve avoided that which I’ve heard such bad tales of thus far. To go the rest of my life without saying so is I’m sure arrogant…Lord help me on the day my teeth meet that sort of metal.
Anyway, I digress. The desk. It belonged to Anthony in college. He purchased it at a local thrift store for 10 beans and now it’s traveled the country with us. It’s an antique and was missing one handle, sporting a rope strung in it’s place. Well, way back when I primed the thing, I scored some super cool knobs and handles for it on super clearance at Target. The only problem was that the new handles were shorter than the original handles which meant I had to drill new holes. After feeling gutsy one afternoon and too impatient to wait on Anthony, I decided to break out the drill and do it myself.
I’m sure there’s a much better and smarter way to do this butttt…first I measured and made marks where the holes needed to be drilled. Then I grabbed a drill bit that fit through the existing holes since the new screws fit in them just peachily. Next, holding the drill as vertically straight as I could, I drilled myself four new holes.
(Old holes on the outside, new on the inside…in case you’re a curious feline.)
Next step was to fill the holes. First I placed a piece of tape on the backs of the holes, inside the drawer, to hold in my filler. Then, using some paintable wood filler, I simply pressed it into each hole until they were over-filled. After waiting a few hours for them to dry, I took a fine-grit sanding block and sanded over them until they were smooth. If for some reason you need to fill more, you’d have to repeat this process - over-fill and sand.
Here’s the wood filler I used:
I got it at Wal-Mart awhile ago and my only complaint is that the filler in the nozzle dried so that I couldn’t squeeze anymore out. So, I had to cut off the end of the tube and now tape it shut when I’m done. It’s seemed to keep well so far.
This next step is optional but since wood filler tends to dry a little less smooth (however it’s not very noticeable except to these perfectionist eyes) due to the fibers in it, I sanded a little more and filled in the very tippity top of my holes with some spackle. I also used the spackle to fill in a few dents in the face of the drawer.
The last thing I did was swipe some primer over the areas I filled before I got to painting. 
A couple of things: 1) if you’re planning on staining something you’ve filled in holes on, you wouldn’t be able to get things ultra-smooth with spackle…I don’t thing it takes stain well (not sure on that though) and 2) also if you’re planning on staining vs. painting, make sure you use stainable wood filler. Your holes/dents/cracks should blend right in.
And that’s that. I’ll have the finished desk up next week (with just maybe a sneak peak on Instagram…check the sidebar over there ---->
or follow @beaninlove).
Have a great weekend all you folks out there!
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