The Browning Beat: Old Buffet, New Look

I have many passions - one of which is taking older furniture, painting it, and giving it a new look. I love the thrill of finding a piece with "good bones" and imagining it with a fresh coat of paint - or shabbied up a bit.

I have been doing this for years, and have really enjoyed it when I have the time, money and space to rework a piece and put it in my home.

There has been much talk of a newish paint called chalk paint, so I looked into it. Many people love it and claim that it can coat any surface without prepping the piece. I might try it in the future, but for now I was turned off at the price of the paint which can be as steep as $40 for a small quart of paint. I have always used a flat latex (the cheapest I can find) and it has always worked well for me. So, for this project I stuck with what I knew.

A friend had given me a can of Annie Sloan's clear coat wax (a line of a popular chalk paint). The wax acts as a top coat, a sealant to the paint as well as a nice finisher in bringing out luster.

So ... this is what I did:

We had recently purchased an old Craftsman style home (108 years old), and I found myself wanting to add some funky pieces. My problem? I didn't have a ton of space, but needed a place to serve from within my dining space. I started to look through online ads for a smaller buffet, that was on the cheap.

I found these two contenders. The top one was a bit more than the bottom, so naturally I went to take a peak at the bottom one - and felt it was too small - almost like a coffee table. It was the right color, as I was wanting to go turquoise, but in the end - I decided to spend just a tad more and get the top buffet. I think I spent $75 for the piece. Not too bad ...

When I get furniture to rework, I get excited and started right away. I had recently purchased a new chandelier from some of my favorite furniture friends who take my hobby of reworking pieces, and then sell them (you can find them on Facebook under My Sister's Stuff). This chandelier is awesome, and lends a fun and funky focal point to my dining area - anyway, I digress. I wanted my buffet to help anchor that chandelier by echoing the color scheme. So, I matched the paint at my local hardware store and also picked up some cheap flat white paint.

I first painted my piece with the blue paint, and then after that dried, applied the white.

I wanted the blue to pop through, but not steal the show from the chandelier. So, my answer to that was to have the white coat help offset the blue. So I sanded down in spots to reveal the blue, and in other spots sanded further to reveal the wood grain - giving the piece a true shabby feel.

The outcome was exactly what I had envisioned. I then used that free wax to finish. Man, that stuff stinks. So, after opening some windows - I applied the wax a couple of different times, being sure to buff in between applications.