This heat is brutal...I hate to gripe because my son reported it was 120 degrees in Phoenix a month ago and I usually we are in triple digits by now. But seriously, this heat and humidity is brutal.

Because of that I get a tad lazy.

First, I want to hibernate...seriously, go inside and not come out until October. Second, I tend to do stupid things....

Like take this little mahogany bookshelf in without doing anything to it....

Not horrible and I really thought just MAYBE someone else would take a risk on it. But it did have several issues.

First, the overall original finish...kind of cruddy!

Not horrible, but not great either.

The biggest issue was a "burn" on the veneer,. Seriously, how does this happen?

I have no idea!

I brought it home after it sat in my room at 410 Vintage for a month or so...evidently no one was willing to do their own DIY on it. So it was up to me to make it presentable...curses!

First, I had to repair the burned veneer (again, what the heck?) I used the same process I used on the old dresser and shared here.

I really wanted to save a little bit of the wood feature, so I used this process to strip and oil the top. Didn't take but a few minutes!

Plaster paint, distress and seal.

I want to admit one little glaring error in this little makeover. Mahogany has a tendency to "bleed" through any paint. The BEST thing to do when painting mahogany is to first seal it with a clear lacquer or primer, then apply your paint.

I, sadly, did not do this. And while my little "repair" job on the veneer is darn near perfect, the fact that the mahogany bled through makes this little oversight a little more glaring.