A friend and neighbor of mine also happens to be an incredibly talented interior designer - and bargain hunter.
I have the best friends!
She has been helping me with our home interiors and recently found this lovely bargain buffet. It just needed a little love.
Now, I am not a DIYer but with her support and experience, I decided I was up for the challenge.
My enthusiasm was pretty strong the first day or two. I deglossed the whole thing and then using spray paint, primed it white. I then painted it (with spray paint again) in gray and began sanding it by hand to distress.
So easy! Right? That's what I was thinking.
I should have known... it was just a little TOO easy.
See the design on the doors? For some reason, the one on the right popped through when I began sanding by hand. Grrr. And there was a little bit of bubbling under the paint on the left side.
OK - no problem. I can handle a little extra work.
I taped around those areas, borrowed a friend's palm sander and sanded down the right door and the left side all the way to the wood. I then re-primed and re-painted those areas.
The next day, I removed the painters tape. Now, anyone who has done such a project is gasping. Yep. The tape stripped the paint right off too. If you ever consider doing this type of work and have to tape over newly painted furniture - pull the tape off THE SECOND you finish painting the other areas or you run the same risk.
It was at this point, I almost threw in the towel. I was so disgusted with my stupid mistake. Thank goodness I wasn't doing this alone or the buffet would still be sitting in my garage.
But after a little reassurance and coaching from my friend, I went back at it... hand sanding the paint peeled areas to smooth and then doing a little re-touching of paint. Once I started the distressing and then antiquing process, it actually added more character to the piece.
Finally done!
Almost. When I purchased this piece, it had an unattractive mirror attached to the back. We removed it and bought a piece of broken granite with plans to have it cut to fit on top of this buffet making it a truly usable piece of furniture.
The guy who was doing the cutting has been near impossible to reach. I called him almost every day for two weeks straight before Thanksgiving. Then played a game of tag for one whole day trying to meet him at his business to pick it up. No luck.
After Thanksgiving, this little game continued. I had almost given up and pretty much decided it looked fine without a top.
See, this is why I don't DIY. It gets to a certain point of complicated or time consuming and I just quit.
Finally today I reached him. And not only did I get my granite top, he DELIVERED it! Yahoo!
Before
After
I'm so excited! Even though I had a few first-timer troubles, the whole thing really didn't take very long and was well worth the trouble for the beautiful outcome!
