DIY Buffet Table Makeover

Ever since becoming a homeowner, I’ve been itching to get crafty and re-do some pieces. Though I’ve totally messed up some projects, this project has had the best turnout so far! Our dining room table doesn’t have a matching buffet, and I’ve had a really hard time finding a wooden buffet that matched the dark brown wood of the table. So, we decided that we would do a white buffet, we just needed to find the right one and for a reasonable price. After about two weeks of searching Craigslist and local thrift stores, we found the perfect buffet on a Craigslist post by a local estate sale store. It had already been painted some funky/shabby chic colors, which looked great but wasn’t what we are going for, so we knew we would have to change that. The asking price was more than we were going for, so we responded to the post offering less, and they accepted. This buffet is crazy heavy, I actually hurt my back bringing it into the house, but I really like the cabinet doors and the overall size of it. I felt a little bad painting over the previous paint job because they did a great job, but it just wasn’t my style.

It was a pretty simple project, I just sanded the whole piece (which probably wasn’t necessary, but I wanted to be safe) and removed all of the doors and hardware. After I wiped the whole thing down, I primed it with Zissner 1-2-3 spray primer, which covered it perfectly. I needed 3 cans to cover everything though. Then, I put on two coats of Valspar Reserve paint in Bright White. I thought about using a roller brush, but most of the surface isn’t flat, so I stuck with a regular paint brush.

Finally, I worked on the doors. The hardware was an old dirty brass, so I cleaned them and painted them with a metallic silver spray paint. The doors have some shapes/designs on them, which I almost wanted to leave all white just because it was easier, but we decided a different color would stand out better. So, I used Valspar Reserve in North Star; since it was such a small area to cover, I bought a sample size and I didn’t even use half of it, so that was a good choice! I used a sponge brush for the gray because I only wanted it to stay on the top part of the diamond-shaped design on the doors, and that made it so much easier. It still required some touching up with a very small paint brush.

Once all of the painting was done, I was torn between a wax seal or a polycrylic seal (which I’ve used in the past and had a hard time with the dripping). So, i decided to give the wax a try and man, it was the easiest thing about the whole project! i used Valspar Sealing Wax and it was so easy to put on. I put on 3 coats just to be safe, since i expect the buffet to get quite a bit of use. Then we put everything back together, and voila!

I forgot to take pictures of the whole process, I figure it’s pretty self explanatory, but I know people love pictures. I’m still learning this whole blogging thing after all.

xoxo,

Kirsten