‘noting, pertaining to, or resembling a style of furnishings and decoration originating in the provinces of France in the 18th century, derived from but less ornate than styles then current in Paris and featuring simply carved wood furniture, often with decorative curved moldings.’
On one of my three times a week trips to the Asheville Habitat Restore I spotted this the second I walked through the door.
Now, the tag said ‘dresser’.
But I knew good and well this was not a dresser.
This is a buffet.
Oh, how I have learned to flintch at the sound of that word. I say that because if I drool over anything with the word buffet on it, I am guaranteed NOT to be able to afford it. Where I come from, that word comes with a minimum of a $200 price tag. Which accounts for the fact that I’ve only done four of these in my illustrious 2 3/4 year career.
So did I mind getting a buffet at a second hand dresser price ?
Heck. No.
I have this theory on color when it comes to the size of a piece of furniture. I feel like the larger the piece of furniture, the more neutral the color should be. So on the buffet I chose Old White.
Ahhhh, the ugly stage!
The key here is not to panic.
I began by sanding the original finish off of the top of this buffet with my little orbital and 80 grit sand paper. Originally I thought I would find maple under the factory finish, but I was wrong.
Mahogany
We have a love/hate relationship.
It tends to bleed through chalk paint. I got kinda lucky on this one. It only bled through the paint in a couple of spot. I remedied that with some spray on shellac.
Next, I refinished that top using Annie Sloan dark wax only. Just get yourself a gob of the wax on a lint free cloth
And start rubbing it in like crazy.
The wax creates a beautiful finish that will look different on each type of wood. I love how it settles in to all the dings and imperfections.
Here are the results:
I am soooo pleased with this one!
And apparently so are our neighbors. Big Daddy was out of town when I came home with it and the sweet couple who live next door were kind enough to help me unload it from my jeep and get it in to our garage.
Now.
How about a little commotion for that top?
Lets talk about the hardware.
I keep quite the stash of it.
Mostly it’s new knobs that I find on clearence or at a really good deal and I try to get them in sets of 6 or 8. Most of the pulls in my stash are old ones that I’ve saved from salvaged or roadside finds.
These I’ve had for over a year. I was just looking for a piece of furniture worthy of them. My friend Wendy and I flew out of the neighborhood late one evening last Summer because I saw a free chest if drawers on Craigslist. That’s a good friend right there. Anyway, the chest turned out to be a rat trap (the literal) but I saved the pulls! The second I saw this buffet in Habitat I immediately thought the pulls were way undersized.
Hardware is pretty tricky for these bow front pieces. About the only pulls that will work are these bails. I filled the original hardware holes and then Big Daddy drilled new ones for me.
The knobs came from Hobby Lobby for $2 each.
I didn’t go nuts with the sandpaper on this one. I kept the distressing to a minimum.
I painted the rooster as well as the pair of lamps. The rooster was my Mama’s. He was just about every color of the rainbow until I got ahold of him. Now he lives in my kitchen.
The lamps I scored off of a local Facebook yard sale page for $5 each. Two coats of Annie Sloan French Linen and it’s a whole different ball game. I finished them off with dark wax and $10 white linen shades from Ross. They look pretty sharp sitting on the buffet:)
Have a great week!
Paige
Blogs I love !
http://www.patinaparadise.com/?m=1
http://www.stonegableblog.com
http://seekinglavenderlane.com
http://www.funkyjunkinteriors.net
http://www.frenchcountrycottage.net/?m=1
http://theessenceofhome.blogspot.com/?m=1
http://www.thededicatedhouse.com
http://www.savvysouthernstyle.net/?m=1
It's gorgeous. Your work is amazing.
Thank you!
That is another one of your lovely visions on that piece of furniture. I just thought it was originally ugly, but you see something else. I love what you did & love the knobs. Now, are you going to keep it?
Oh Mama than you so much! You are always so kind to me and so positive! No I'm not going to keep it and I know I will regret this one. But I will visit it as it is going to live right nex door to me:)
So very pretty! Love the look the dark wax gave the top and Old White is my favorite!! Great job!
Beautiful! What a talent!
I am so blessed to have you as my neighbor and rightly blessed to benefit from your talent as this piece will live with my family soon. You can come visit it anytime:) As always, well done Paige.
Wow you did an awesome job. I love it and the whole stained top and painted bottom thing. I have a cherry table I was thinking of doing that with but the issue is time.. someday,
love the dresser, beautiful finish on the top, perfect!
What great piece. It turned out perfect!