Buffet Project

 I love a project!  

I found a buffet and had a vision for its transformation.

After much sanding, painting and distressing, the vision is realized and the process documented.  This is my way, tried over many years, but surely not the only way.  Have fun.  There will almost always be surprises.  Keep smiling and hold on to your vision.

I first removed all the hardware, 

pulls and hinges, then began sanding.  

The piece was stained rather than painted and the 

finish came off easily with my trusty electrical sander.  

NOTE:  If it's necessary to strip paint, Goddard's stripper is absolutely the best I've found.  It's however a commercial product and not easy to find.  Get the stripper with the highest percentage of methylene chloride you can find.  It's really toxic so you have to work outside wearing really heavy-duty protective gloves.

Here's my buffet, sanded and ready for paint, like a blank canvas.  I love this stage!

So, I wanted to be really sure about the color.  My vision was a charcoal color with lots of scuffed wood showing through.  Blacks and grays vary with such subtlety but can really change a look.  I started a test of "black forest" from Lowes.  Too green.  Tried Sherwin Williams "black swan."  Too purple.  "Tricorn black"  is black, black.  Not what I was after.  Sherwin Williams "black magic" was the magical color.  Exactly what I wanted, the color of a black kettle.  Four test samples were worth it.

I began painting, one thin coat, then another.  I always use a flat latex paint.  

When the piece was well covered and the paint coats were very dry I used my electric sander, then sand paper, to scuff the edges and areas where natural wear would occur.  The extent of this distressing is always a matter of taste and vision.

After I was satisfied with the scuffing I mixed a diluted antique stain, Minwax "provencial" diluted with turpentine.  I applied it to all the surfaces and crevices with a sponge brush then wiped it entirely off with a lint-free rag.  On this piece, the staining darkened the finish more than I liked so I used fine steel wool and turpentine to buff out the stain to a finish I wanted.  The steel wool buffing smoothed the finish and the oil-base stain gave it just the right amount of sheen.

I put all the hardware back on and the buffet was finished and beautiful to me.