Refinishing a Dining Room Buffet

I really never thought I would actually get to sit down and write this post.  Really. I'm not exaggerating! We bought our buffet back in March (yes, March) and I talked about it here.  I was so frustrated that it had been like, a whole two weeks and we weren't done yet! Ohhh little did I know how long it would take.. So, yes it really did kick our butts.  This is how she looked when we brought her home from the flea market...  I'm sorry, who paints anything this horrible interesting combo?

I'm tellin' ya, I don't think I will ever do it again.  Let me see if I can even remember what we did - We used some of the chemical strippers, and they did okay, but the stuff coming off was really nasty and goopy and I kept running out of places to wipe off the gunk, and my plastic scrappers where wearing out. Sorry to whine be so detailed, but I think I needed to take a class before I started this project!  What really got it moving was using Hubby's heat gun. Now I know not everybody has a heat gun sitting around - he used to work in airline maintenance and he has eeeeverything... (and he's just a great guy ta boot) so he brought it out and I stood for hours holding the gun, letting it heat up and bubble the paint, and then I'd scrape it off. Hours people.  I know you love our professional set up below hehe..

But even with the heat gun it was hard to get the paint off of certain areas.  So I would work on it, and work on it, and work some more, and it was just a hard project for me. Then the weather had a huge impact on productivity.  Anyone of you from the south will know exactly what I'm talking about.  It has been the rainiest summer in about 15 years!  And it always seemed to rain on the weekends when we had planned to work outside on the buffet. Le Bummer. So most of the time this is how it looked, standing on it's side in the downstairs hallway.

We finally got to the point where we started sanding it (and what a pain that was - look at all the detailing, yuck for sanding!) and then Hubs sprayed it with primer. Then it sat another few weeks until it stopped raining again and we had picked out the color.  We chose Sherwin Williams Dovetail.  I absolutely adore it!

Primer

 Paint

Hubby was not in love with the hardware that came on the piece - I was thinking oh it's not too bad, lets spray paint them and same money!  Nope - he'd have none of it.  In the end I'm so glad he insisted because I picked out some gorgeous drawer pulls!  I really wanted them to be gold and of course when things don't come in the color you want you paint them, right?  Heck yeah you do - Rub N' Buff Grecian Gold right here, baby.  They rock my socks now!  I love how hefty they look and feel.  The Rub N' Buff takes a little longer to do, but I really like the finish - it just seems to have more depth.  And since these pulls were going on a piece of furniture in the dining room it just made sense to use the same thing that I used on the light fixture.

So. Finally here she is in all of her glory.  Ahhh.. it's so nice to say that it's finally finished!  The room still needs painting so that is the next thing on the to-do list.  I am super excited to have a place to store my glass plates and seasonal things without dragging them out of the attic.  YAY!

What about you?  Have any projects that are kicking YOUR butt?  Ones that just linger on like a bad cold??  Do tell!  I need to commiserate!!

Linking up at Thrifty Decor Chick , Savvy Southern Style and at DIY Show Off!

Love ya!

Kelli