Blue Buffet

First off thanks for coming, glad to see you.

If you don’t want to read this just scroll through the pictures, I get it that’s a lot of words. I scroll too.

So there I was, in the middle of a showing (Im a Realtor) both myself and my buyer spot this furniture from across the street in the middle of the pouring rain. He says “that tables definitely going to get ruined” I agree and telepathically tell my soon to be new buffet “I’ll be back for you”.

After driving around the block to not look like a complete weirdo and maintain a bit of professionalism, I pull up to this piece and start loading it into the back of my Jeep. Mind you, still in the POURING rain. After about 5 mins of trying to load this into my vehicle alone, I’m soaked, its soaked, and my patience is soaked… with frustration. Its heavy. And to top it off people are driving by watching me not successfully load this thing. I was about to give up, but I had already dragged it to the middle of the street and I was NOT about to drag it back to the sidewalk and admit defeat. I gave it one last go, hauled it, and pulled the muscles in my upper back- but who really needs to breath anyway? Worth it.

The fun part, yay! Thanks for staying! The before:

There it is in all its duck tape covered glory. Boy, that’s one good looking hunk-a-junk. This is the decision making stage. Anyone else ever have those moments where “da heck am I going to do with this” becomes your mantra? I have it on repeat but not with just furniture rehabs.

First I had to take the duct tape off, poor guy that’s just straight abuse. However, olive oil and some elbow grease does a wonderful job with removing the tape reside. Also works on hardware. Who knew.

The left picture shows the residue left behind from duct tape, the right shows it cleaned up using olive oil and an old towel!

Sanding it. Woof. I started hand sanding it thinking I would become one with the buffet if I spent the time to hand buff it out… I quickly switched to an electronic sander and THANK GOD I did because even with a power tool it took about 4 hours. (To be fair after removing the doors I ran those through a plainer and that saved some time).

Primer, primer is the cover up the wrecked furniture world. Blank slate. I was about to become the DaVinci of rehab with more sanity but less talent. When applying the primer you want to make sure you are being super aware of any drips, as well as keeping your strokes long. As much as I hate to admit it, if you have choppy brush strokes with your primer it will show through when you do the next step. What do I mean by long strokes? Don’t stop in the middle, brush from one end to the other creating an even pallet.

Actually before I did that I did cut some slats (1.5 in by ¾ in) to run laterally to make the middle section a wine rack, and trim to cover the edges so it allll blended together. I did this mostly so I could use a circular saw which is a newly learned talent, and makes me the coolest.

BLUE. And not just blue, so, so blue. It was bright. At first I was like, nope shouldn’t have done that. But after a quick panic attack and a couple mins of dry time it was settling fine. This particular blue is Valspar Deep Twilight Blue in satin finish. I actually buy the color samples, I needed two for this piece but the price was a total of about $8 compared to a half gallon saves a little bit o’ money. Give it a second coat and let it dry over night.

Next step: washing. This is a new step for me and let me tell you it’s a game changer. I don’t mean washing it with soap and water but with other paint. Like whhhatttt?!? Anywho, you take a secondary color usually darker or lighter depending on the mood you want to give the piece, take equal parts paint and water, give it a little stir, or shake it up cocktail style if you real crazy, and wuh-lah. This second color is Valspar in the shade Ocean Storm- OoOooh mystical!

This step is important, I hope youre paying attention. With a chip brush, brush the wash on in about two inch sections and then wipe it off. You want to use something like cotton, not a towel (a towel will remove too much). I used an old shirt. If you do larger sections the paint will have to much dry time and youll be out of luck. It needs to go on and then almost immediately come back off. Its fun! But also pretty messy.

Last, top glaze to hold it all in. If you rehab furniture do this. You probably wont want to but its important. You worked hard to make it beautiful, this will keep it that way. I used Rust-Oleum Clear Top Coat. Added the new hardware and called it a day.

There is is; before and after, just like magic.