Staining the Desk

So as expected the desk project has been a lot of work.  The detail work on the front lid was obviously going to take a lot of elbow grease, but would have never guessed this much.  I'm pretty sure I used at least 5-8 rounds of paint remover.  It was well worth it.  So now its time to stain.  So whats the hardest part about staining?  Picking the stain you want.  We were looking for dark red stain so our two choices were "English Chestnut" and "Red Oak" from minwax.  Well "Red Oak" won.  I hope you like how it looks.

Seeing how it looks now, all the hard work getting this cleaned up sure was worth it.

I'm still now sure why anybody would ever want to paint over this.  The bird's eye maple veneer is beautiful.

View of the inside of the desk.  I really wanted to redo the inside to, but that just wasn't gonna happen. Way to much work.  Maybe in a few years.

Another nice view of the front.

 The top of the desk.  Had to fill the holes on the top.  They don't blend really well but its only in a few spots.