Scavenger Chic

Curb Rescue, Painted Buffet

• By Joan
• July 31, 2024
• 5 Comments

Curb Rescue, Painted Buffet

Hi friends, welcome back.  Let me introduce to you my latest curbside rescue.  A very nice wooden buffet just waiting for me to take him home and give him a makeover. 

While this piece looks like solid wood, there is particle board lurking underneath a thin veneer.  I’ll get to that in a moment.  So I’m thinking, not an antique, probably a nice piece of 80’s furniture.

While I always love FREE, this little buffet  had it’s share of problems.  The top had tons of scratches.

Some of the scratches were seriously deep.

One corner of the top had been chewed on.  OK, it might not have been actual teeth but there was definitely some wood taken out.

He was missing some of his hardware, the varnish was peeling off and some of the decorative trim was either missing or was about to come off.

As if those issues weren’t enough, 2 of the cabinets were locked and there was no key.

He was definitely ready for his makeover.

Furniture Fixes

While not a great fix, I attacked the chewed up corner with a sander just to make it smooth.

As for the locked doors, I considered taking the door that was already off the cabinet to a locksmith and having them fit a key for me.  Nah, that would probably cost a lot.

I also looked up how to pick a lock on Youtube.

I failed my lockpicking class. I had to  resort to the next best thing…taking the entire top off the cabinet.  Now I can get the doors open.  🙂

I had noticed when we were moving the cabinet that the top was loose, so taking the top off  was not as weird as it may seem.  It appears that a lot of the glue joints were failing.  This was my big chance to reglue and open those doors. 

I roughly sanded the base of the buffet because I’m going to paint it.  I did a more thorough job on the top getting rid of all the scratches and old varnish and stain, working it back to the original wood.  Start with a medium grit sandpaper (around 120) and finish with a find grit (220 and above).   Remove any sandpaper dust with a lint free cloth.

Most of the wood was beautiful on the top of the buffet but that one area with the deep gouges gave me a bit of trouble.  While sanding out the deep scratches, I sanded all the way thru the veneer (yes veneer 😥 ) revealing particle board.

I could always paint the buffet top the same color as I was going to paint the base but I wanted to try this fix first, painting the particle board the same color as the rest of the veneer.

I’m using a mixture of red, a touch of black and chocolate brown and painting in the direction of the wood grain.

I was able to find some trim at Home Depot that was really close to the molding that was missing.  I cut the trim to size and attached with wood glue using tape to hold in place until dry.

If you’re not going to use the original hardware, fill in the holes with  wood putty, let dry and sand.

The top was finished with 3 coats of Watco Danish Oil in a dark walnut finish.  Let dry between coats and if you notice any roughness, buff with a fine steel wool.  The oil covered up the paint fairly well though the paint did absorb the varnish from the oil  a little differently than the plain wood.  The steel wool evened the finishes out.

I painted the bottom with Elephant chalk paint from Waverly.

The base is painted.  Since I’m using chalk paint, I still needed to finish the buffet with a wax to give the paint a nice luster.  One coat of clear wax, and a second coat of clear wax with a little added antique wax finishes off the buffet.  Paint on the wax sparingly, wipe off any excess and let dry.  Once again, buff with a fine steel wool.

The doors did not originally have hardware.  I assume a key would have served that purpose .

This hardware is from Hobby Lobby.

 I was afraid to sand the remaining scratches any further but the painted area turned out pretty well. I can live with that.

A new life for a discarded buffet.

As always, stay inspired.

Related posts:

Ugly Duckling turns into a Swan Hipless Martha Washington DIY Table Leaf for Vintage Dining Table Is it Old…or is it Paint?