Vintage Buffet Makeover

I'm pretty picky when I look through the online classified ads. The item has to be under $50 and located within 10 miles of where I live. Gas is too expensive to go crazy and drive all over heck and back for something. And let's face it, with 5 kids I don't have hundreds of dollars lying around to splurge on anything. I have been looking for something different to put in my entry. The black thing that I had there just made me want to cry.

Black thing in the entry. That's what we call it at our house. It was cheap and brown when I got it, probably spent $20 on it. Painted it black. It's functional. But it's just not pretty.

Laying in bed on a Saturday morning and I come across this ad.

And it's only 5 miles from my house. Sweet! You can't tell much from the photo but at $40 it's something that I think I can make something out of. It was pretty beat up. It was sitting on blocks and the front molding pieces were missing. But it has beautiful lines. Nice curved drawers.

Jerry cut the broken old molding off the bottom of the piece and added new molding. I don't know how he added the curved piece of molding, that's why he's the expert and I am in awe of everything he does. I picked up some wooden feet at Lowes. Interesting.

I decided to tryout the new CeCe Caldwell paint on this piece. The thought of not sanding it down was totally appealing to me. So I bought a sample jar and decided to give it a try on. The sample jar was $12.95, Ouch! For about 2 ounces of paint, are you kidding me. This better be good stuff.

After watching several tutorials on youtube I get started. I follow the instructions and paint it on without sanding. I did have to clean this piece really good. It was sitting in this dirty garage and it had drywall mud splattered all over it. Which came off very easily, so thankful for that. I let it sit overnight. The next morning things were not looking good. First of all the paint wasn't white it was pink. I had used all the sample pot so before going to buy more I thought I would try distressing it. So I followed the instructions to "distress" it by wiping it off with a damp rag. Here is what happened.

The CeCe Caldwell paint wiped right off. That is not what I was expecting to happen. Totally disappointed and feeling pretty frustrated that I had spent $45 on sample paint, wax, and satin finish. $45 out the window. Great, chalk paint, not impressing me much at all.

So I decide to forget the chalk paint and go back to what I know, latex paint. A trip to Home Depot to purchase some sandpaper, gripper primer, antique white paint and some polyurethane. And we are back in business.

After sanding it down and priming everything here is what I am seeing.

This is what it looks like after a coat of the gripper primer. Can you say discouraged? I think I walked away from this project for almost a month. I didn't want a pink buffet in my entry!

After a lot of research on the internet I found that the color of the stain was coming through the primer. I gave it another good coat of primer and I was back in business.

And here is the finished product. It's beautiful! I am missing one handle because the screws are bent and I need to make another trip to the Depot. Yes, it been sitting like that for almost 2 months now. I will get that last drawer pull on, eventually.

Some little molding detail work was missing on some of the drawers. Jerry said he could replace those for me if I would like but we both agreed that the missing pieces gave it character.

Here is what I did on this piece. (After the mess I made with the CeCe Caldwell paint)
Sand down the entire piece
2 coats of Gripper Primer
2 coats of Antique White
 Distress the piece
Ralph Lauren Tobacco Glaze
Early American Minwax Stain
Polyurethane Satin Finish


We originally wanted to try and fix this up to sell it. But after all the blood, sweat and tears that I put into this piece I just can't let it go for anything less then $1200. I think that it is probably only worth that to me. So guess what, I'm keeping it! And I love it! Way better the the black thing I had there before.