So I posted pictures of the refinishing process for our dining table that was my parents table originally. It makes sense that we'd want to hang on to that table because it's beautiful and it was theirs. But my new found fascination for old or pre-owned things doesn't stop there. When we built our first house and picked out furniture, if a piece had a wood grain out of place it was tainted to me. Now I can't seem to get enough of the vintage, antique pieces that have long outlived me.
I found this buffet on Craiglist, and it was the absolute exact size and style I wanted and I knew I could make her pretty again. When we went to pick it up, we met the sellers, who were a bi-racial couple who said they purchased this buffet in an antique store in the 60s (in Dallas) not long after they got married. Now tell me that family and that buffet doesn't have some stories to tell!
I'm not sure you can grasp the scale of this beast from the picture, but it's 79" long, 24" deep, and 38" tall at the "serving" surface or 44" tall including the decorative piece on the back. And it's not polite to talk about a lady's weight, but... ok i'll leave it at that. :)
It's all mahogany, though the top piece was veneer and it had a chip along the front edge. When I first saw it I thought I'd just use a dab of wood filler, but then I decided not to be lazy. So I chipped that piece away and then another. Then I got my iron out and gave it its annual one time use over a wet towel and started melting the glue to make scraping that veneer easier. It was messy, and a miracle that I didn't end up with ER quality splinters.
I guess I lost a big batch of pictures because I'm pretty sure I photographed it with the top all stripped but can't find any pictures after this point until the finished product. Once the veneer was off, then I gave it a good sanding, and I started filling in some rough patches and little holes.
Notice the hardware in the photo above... it was missing one piece, and I searched high and low from antique hardware suppliers, etsy, reproduction hardware etc and no luck. So instead, I just bought 2 knobs that mimic the shape of the backplate on the existing hardware and got creative.
So here's another giant gap in my photos. I also added 3 wood appliques - a large one to each of the deep drawers and a small one on the decorate backer on top. I know I took pictures of those both in process with clamps galore on them, as well as afterwards before the paint went on, but I must have deleted a batch. Sorry! Those are really easy to apply (assuming they don't arrive broken in half like mine did!) You just glue them on, and then clamp them in place while they dry, and they add so much character. I got mine from HomeDepot.com (the stores back home used to carry them in store, but I couldn't find them locally). I've also purchased from doityourselfchic.com in the past. They carry more "shabby chic" florals and ribbons etc and for the buffet I just wanted some antique detail.
It would have made perfect sense to paint this that muted aqua or "duck egg" for annie sloan chalk paint fans. This piece is going in our dining room, which is not intended to be a formal space, as it's open to the kitchen and living room. The kitchen backsplash is going to be aqua, so it would have been a nice tie in. But in the furniture painting world, aqua is like the proverbial little black dress - everyone has a piece (or five) painted aqua. Despite it being my favorite color, I tend to stubbornly reject that which fits a mold. Thus, I got it in my head that this giant buffet needed to be purple. Not "collegiate" purple as Brent calls it, but a muted soft gray-lilac. When I couldn't find many inspiration photos of lilac buffets, that sealed the deal. It took me a couple shots to get the paint color right. What in the world did we do before Home Depot and Lowes started selling 7oz sample jars for $2.94? :)
I did a deeper base intended to show through where I distressed, and I also left the inside behind the cabinet doors the deeper color because I thought our white/silver china that will be stored there would pop nicely off the darker color. That color is Behr Enchanted Evening.
I nearly finished the entire thing with a single sample jar that I used to make at home chalk-like paint with plaster of paris. It's amazing how much better the coverage is! You can see in this next picture how far I got with a single sample jar.
The flash is exaggerating the color a bit. It was more subdued in real life. Annoying that I came so close on one little jar, right? I could have thinned it out to stretch, but for a $3 sample jar it was worth it to get really good coverage on that porous top.
See that plastic tub with the lid? That's what I used to mix the plaster of paris, water, and paint. I've heard people get really good results with grout instead of plaster of paris, but the beauty of the recipe I use is that you can make an entire batch, put a lid on it and come back to it a week later. The recipe using grout hardens permanently so you need to work in small batches. Side tidbit for anyone about to embark on homemade chalk-like painting. Here's the recipe I use:
* 1 part plaster of paris (1/8 cup)
* 1 part water (1/8 cup)
* 6 parts latex paint (full sample jar)
Mix the water and plaster of paris well and then add in the paint. That's it!
The top color is the one I struggled with, but on my second attempt got exactly what I wanted with Benjamin Moore's Spring Violet:
I'm new to distressing, because it causes me great anxiety to add imperfections to a perfectly tidy paint finish. But the advice I give others I need to take myself - you can't mess up. If you don't like it, you just sand it and paint it again! But this piece was begging for a distressed finish. I left all the flat surfaces alone, and gave just the edges a medium grit sanding. I experimented with vaseline to make distressing easier, but I didn't like the results - it was too artificial. I'm sure with practice I'll find a good use for it, but this time I just sanded along all the edges and detail. I finished with a single coat of minwax polycrylic, water based sealer. I found to my horror that the sealer pulled out some of those stains you come to expect when you paint over mahogany. The problem is I expected to see them at the paint stage, not at the end! It wasn't until I sealed that the stains came through. Turns out it was the distressed edges of mahogany peeking through that stained the top of the paint. Just took a little touch up paint and touch up sealer
I spray painted the hardware with a textured flat black. All the door hardware in our new house will be matte black so at a minimum that will tie together but I'm also considering a matte black light fixture over the dining table. This piece is quite feminine, as is the set of chairs I refinished, so I need to bring in more rustic and weight so I am thinking the black was a good choice. We'll see if it stays black as we start choosing our lighting. :)
Ok, no more dilly dallying or lallygagging as my nugget says...
Here she is!
I'm thinking she'll be a happy part of our family for many many years to come! Is it me? or is she just pleading with me to feature some artificial cupcakes in pretty glass display cases? I might not be able to help myself. Stay tuned for that project... maybe.
I found this buffet on Craiglist, and it was the absolute exact size and style I wanted and I knew I could make her pretty again. When we went to pick it up, we met the sellers, who were a bi-racial couple who said they purchased this buffet in an antique store in the 60s (in Dallas) not long after they got married. Now tell me that family and that buffet doesn't have some stories to tell!
 |
| BEFORE |
I'm not sure you can grasp the scale of this beast from the picture, but it's 79" long, 24" deep, and 38" tall at the "serving" surface or 44" tall including the decorative piece on the back. And it's not polite to talk about a lady's weight, but... ok i'll leave it at that. :)
It's all mahogany, though the top piece was veneer and it had a chip along the front edge. When I first saw it I thought I'd just use a dab of wood filler, but then I decided not to be lazy. So I chipped that piece away and then another. Then I got my iron out and gave it its annual one time use over a wet towel and started melting the glue to make scraping that veneer easier. It was messy, and a miracle that I didn't end up with ER quality splinters.
I guess I lost a big batch of pictures because I'm pretty sure I photographed it with the top all stripped but can't find any pictures after this point until the finished product. Once the veneer was off, then I gave it a good sanding, and I started filling in some rough patches and little holes.
Notice the hardware in the photo above... it was missing one piece, and I searched high and low from antique hardware suppliers, etsy, reproduction hardware etc and no luck. So instead, I just bought 2 knobs that mimic the shape of the backplate on the existing hardware and got creative.
So here's another giant gap in my photos. I also added 3 wood appliques - a large one to each of the deep drawers and a small one on the decorate backer on top. I know I took pictures of those both in process with clamps galore on them, as well as afterwards before the paint went on, but I must have deleted a batch. Sorry! Those are really easy to apply (assuming they don't arrive broken in half like mine did!) You just glue them on, and then clamp them in place while they dry, and they add so much character. I got mine from HomeDepot.com (the stores back home used to carry them in store, but I couldn't find them locally). I've also purchased from doityourselfchic.com in the past. They carry more "shabby chic" florals and ribbons etc and for the buffet I just wanted some antique detail.
It would have made perfect sense to paint this that muted aqua or "duck egg" for annie sloan chalk paint fans. This piece is going in our dining room, which is not intended to be a formal space, as it's open to the kitchen and living room. The kitchen backsplash is going to be aqua, so it would have been a nice tie in. But in the furniture painting world, aqua is like the proverbial little black dress - everyone has a piece (or five) painted aqua. Despite it being my favorite color, I tend to stubbornly reject that which fits a mold. Thus, I got it in my head that this giant buffet needed to be purple. Not "collegiate" purple as Brent calls it, but a muted soft gray-lilac. When I couldn't find many inspiration photos of lilac buffets, that sealed the deal. It took me a couple shots to get the paint color right. What in the world did we do before Home Depot and Lowes started selling 7oz sample jars for $2.94? :)
I did a deeper base intended to show through where I distressed, and I also left the inside behind the cabinet doors the deeper color because I thought our white/silver china that will be stored there would pop nicely off the darker color. That color is Behr Enchanted Evening.
I nearly finished the entire thing with a single sample jar that I used to make at home chalk-like paint with plaster of paris. It's amazing how much better the coverage is! You can see in this next picture how far I got with a single sample jar.
The flash is exaggerating the color a bit. It was more subdued in real life. Annoying that I came so close on one little jar, right? I could have thinned it out to stretch, but for a $3 sample jar it was worth it to get really good coverage on that porous top.
See that plastic tub with the lid? That's what I used to mix the plaster of paris, water, and paint. I've heard people get really good results with grout instead of plaster of paris, but the beauty of the recipe I use is that you can make an entire batch, put a lid on it and come back to it a week later. The recipe using grout hardens permanently so you need to work in small batches. Side tidbit for anyone about to embark on homemade chalk-like painting. Here's the recipe I use:
* 1 part plaster of paris (1/8 cup)
* 1 part water (1/8 cup)
* 6 parts latex paint (full sample jar)
Mix the water and plaster of paris well and then add in the paint. That's it!
The top color is the one I struggled with, but on my second attempt got exactly what I wanted with Benjamin Moore's Spring Violet:
I'm new to distressing, because it causes me great anxiety to add imperfections to a perfectly tidy paint finish. But the advice I give others I need to take myself - you can't mess up. If you don't like it, you just sand it and paint it again! But this piece was begging for a distressed finish. I left all the flat surfaces alone, and gave just the edges a medium grit sanding. I experimented with vaseline to make distressing easier, but I didn't like the results - it was too artificial. I'm sure with practice I'll find a good use for it, but this time I just sanded along all the edges and detail. I finished with a single coat of minwax polycrylic, water based sealer. I found to my horror that the sealer pulled out some of those stains you come to expect when you paint over mahogany. The problem is I expected to see them at the paint stage, not at the end! It wasn't until I sealed that the stains came through. Turns out it was the distressed edges of mahogany peeking through that stained the top of the paint. Just took a little touch up paint and touch up sealer
I spray painted the hardware with a textured flat black. All the door hardware in our new house will be matte black so at a minimum that will tie together but I'm also considering a matte black light fixture over the dining table. This piece is quite feminine, as is the set of chairs I refinished, so I need to bring in more rustic and weight so I am thinking the black was a good choice. We'll see if it stays black as we start choosing our lighting. :)
Ok, no more dilly dallying or lallygagging as my nugget says...
Here she is!
 |
| close-up of the new appliques |
 |
| love these legs! |
 |
| You can see the wood grain just peeking through but generally it's pretty smooth. I like the texture on the top though! Just another bonus of peeling off that veneer. |
I'm thinking she'll be a happy part of our family for many many years to come! Is it me? or is she just pleading with me to feature some artificial cupcakes in pretty glass display cases? I might not be able to help myself. Stay tuned for that project... maybe.
 |
| great fake cupcake tutorial here>> |
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