16 March

Maria’s New $65 Metal Mystery Desk

by Jon Katz

Maria and I stop by Shiny Sisters, a “Repurpose and Re-Imaging” shop that is a combination antique, restoration and just odd and amazing things. I got my desk there, and we got our neat nightlight/lamp there, Leslie is a lot of fun, and the place is so full of things I want that Maria sometimes makes me stay in the car.

The minute I walked in, I spotted this very strange heavy metal desk on one side, Leslie had just gotten it from a farm and put a $65 price tag on it. I saw Maria staring it at, an as sometimes happens, it practically screamed “I am Maria’s Desk.”

I said we have to get this, and she said she thought it was right for hear. It is a curious thing, I can’t quite imagine how old it is, but I know nobody makes metal desks like that, complete with a row of bins for papers or flowers or whatever.

Since it came from a farm, I’m guessing it might have been used to keep records in a milk house or sheep farm. It would makeĀ  perfect desk for Maria in the living room, she usually does her writing and paperwork on a sofa.

The price was sort of unbelievably good, Leslie’s price are always low. And she is a lot of sun. She is great salesperson as well, helpful and a good listener but never pushy or too intense. She absolutely loves what she does and there are always a bunch of things we love – old tables and chairs, curious lamps, dresses, I got my beautiful bankersĀ  desk from London there, it was about $200.

Because of my Dyslexia, I am forever struggling to keep my study from being overrun. Because I can’t remember things I don’t see, I’m always piling books and papers near me and in plain sight, otherwise they don’t exist for me.

The result is chaos on one end of my office, barren space on the other. Leslie says she can help, she got the issue right away. I don’t think it is soluble, I’ve been trying for years.

But I’m thrilled that we got this desk for Maria. When it warms up, it needs a good deal of work, lots of hosing and scrubbing, and perhaps painting. It will fit perfect in our house. I am resigned to the probability that we will never know where it came from, what it was really used for or how much it was worth.

We will just have to use our imagination. It’s parked under the roof on the side porch until we can get to clean it up. Maria will get the drawers later in the week. I can’t wait to see what she does with those filing spaces.

6 Comments

  1. It may have been used on a farm, but from the extremely heavy construction it looks like it was originally a piece of factory furniture, made to hold tools or heavy product.

  2. That desk looks like hospital equipment to me and of course that is just a guess. What I see is sturdy, with compartments for patient’s charts and white-painted metal for easy (-ish) cleaning.

  3. Gosh I wonder if a woodworker could add two drawers at the holes on bottom at the front. It’s lovely and so full of possibilities

  4. Super cool desk, love the color and the bins. That used to be my kryptonite, baskets and bins just call to me.

    Trust Leslie to help you Jon, reframing our beliefs about ourselves is part of the conversation of growth and change. I remodel beliefs in my healing work all the time, DNA and RNA are made to shift and so are we. Give her a go and surprise yourself

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