Painting Tutorial: Buffet

I had really good intentions of sharing this with you guys last fall right after I had it completed...but if I'm being honest, this project is still not 100% complete. I need to seal the stain on top with one more coat that I'm nervous about because I like how it looks right NOW and I don't want that final seal/top coat to change that. So I've put it off for seven months nbd.

Here's a picture of what our $200-Craigslist buffet (bought in 2012) looked like in our dining room BEFORE:

Not bad through an Instagram filter...but in the bright light of day it was ORANGE.

I knew this thing would be a beast to knock out...plus the far left cupboard is where we hide our Internet router and I was not looking forward to the cord mess I'd have to look at while I worked on it in the garage. But one day last September I worked up enough nerve to tackle it...and hauled it out to our deck through the back door by myself!

Then I spent the remainder of the afternoon sanding, until it looked like this:

And I sanded it WELL. I was not about to let this be one of the projects I was unsatisfied with in the end because I did a half-A job. The legs weren't easy, so I used a mixture of paper sanding and using the hand-sander we have.

Please also note...I hauled this buffet by myself from the deck, down three steps, through a skinny walkway, into our garage during naptime. I tell you what...having a husband work the hours he does has made me pretty self-sufficient in a few pretty handy ways. ;)

After sanding I wiped the buffet off with a damp towel cloth, then a dry towel to remove all the dust. Then I started right in spray painting. I like the Rust-O-Leum spray paint for its quality, but also for the spray-gun nozzle (you can see it in the picture below). It makes big projects WAY easier! The body and drawers/doors of the buffet only took two coats of spray paint, with a small third touch-up spray coat.

Because I had plans to stain the top a dark walnut color, I kept it covered with a sheet while I sprayed the bottom white. I did a little re-sanding to get the white spray-paint dust off before I started staining. I wanted to make sure the stain would soak into the wood well.

Our garage isn't the best work space, but it's important to keep spray paint 'dust' contained and out of the wind. And also in a well-ventilated place where the piece can dry. One of the reasons spray painting something this size isn't always the easiest option.

The next step was the part I was dreading. I'm no rookie to staining wood, especially staining wood that was an ugly, bright orange in its past life (ie: our kitchen cupboards). I believed I sanded the top as much as I could, so I was confident this part would go well.

It didn't.

It took about four or five coats of painting on the stain, letting it soak in for an hour or two, going out to wipe it off with a t-shirt rag, letting it cure/dry for 24+ hours, then going back in with another coat of stain to cover up the orange that was STILL showing through. This resulted in a finish that was waaaay too shiny for my liking.

See?? Too shiny. And this was before I sealed the stain with wax or poly or anything! I had both my mom's and all my sister's on a giant text message thread asking them their advice because I desperately did NOT want to mess this up!

My favorite part of any project...the distressing! I'm always AMAZED at how quality furniture painted well can look like I just went to Homemaker's and bought it! It's how I achieve the Magnolia furniture line 'look' without the price tag. ;)

I let the buffet fully dry and cure in our dining room for a couple weeks so I could sort of put everything back together while I decided on my plan of action. I've been known to jump the gun on this step and then kick myself later (you mean I can't decorate a freshly painted shelf RIGHT AWAY?!). I believed there were enough coats of stain soaked into the wood that I could do some light sanding to get the look I wanted and dull the shine. But I was a little nervous about it. I used FINE sand paper and made sure I sanded slowly and evenly.

Up close the orange shows through a little bit...and there is still a little too much shine for my liking...but overall I'm really happy with it.

If I were to do it again, I would have saved myself the extra two weeks and used a can of white, flat, spray paint on the top too. It's suuuuuuper durable and I love how it looks distressed. Of course I didn't know all of that going in...hindsight is 20/20, right? The front is what makes the statement, and I like that the buffet (and the cupboard we bought in Galena, and soon, my island!) mimics the theme of our dining room table...white below, walnut stained wood on top. Each piece is a little different and has ended up with a slightly different finish from each other, but they all tie together in a lovely random farmhouse way...and I love that.

Finished!

Here are a few shots of this refinished buffet beauty in action...and darnit if three weeks of annoying work wasn't worth the end result...

Mav's first birthday party...my motivation for getting this project to the finish line.

I keep felt 'feet' on the bottoms of everything that gets put on top to save the finish...I've become an old lady.

That galvanized feeder trough from our barn just has my whole heart. It doesn't matter what I do with it or where I put it, or that it's disgusting on the inside...I'm in love.

I hope my last two posts helped motivate you to take on that next painting project! Or maybe I scared you away from it...eeek, if that's what I did I'm sorry.

MmB