Here's Your Sign

Last year I had a buffet that had wonky doors.  In an effort to salvage the buffet, I took the doors off.

See how the doors didn't meet?

So I took the doors off.  You can see the rest of the buffet make-over here.

Well I took the doors and made signs out of them.

I started off by taping off the border and painting the panel of the door in Old White.

Then I cut stencils out of contact paper with my Silhouette.

I decided to paint the first sign by stenciling the letters.  

I painted them black

then removed the stencil.

The second was was stenciled in relief.  

I applied the letters to the white base, painted over them in red, then removed the letters to reveal the white below.

Both pieces were then topped with a coat of clear wax.

I'm so glad I was able to take a buffet that redeem her issues!

Whacked Buffet Gets a Make-over....FINALLY

Well I did not die, fall off the edge of the world, or contract the plague.  My day job as just had me swamped, and I've been out of town on the weekends.

But, I did get the wacky buffet re-worked and back into the shop this week!  Thought I'd share that with you today!

I bought this buffet at an auction almost two years ago.  

I took it into the shop, and there it sat.  For two years.  

I even put it on sale for 1/2 price.

No takers.

I couldn't figure out what the problem was!

So I took a hard look.

And then I found it.

Do you see it?

There it is!

The doors are whack!

When they're closed, there's a gap at the bottom.

No gap at the top!  What's up with that?

Well, come to find out, the side of the buffet is warped.

No fixing that!

So I decided to take the doors off and give it a face lift.

I stripped and refinished the top, then gave the base two coats of ASCP Emperor's Silk.  I decided not to paint the drawers and love how that turned out!

The inside got a coat of a brown latex to help it blend with the mahogany top.

I gave it a coat of clear wax and then dark wax, and found the perfect baskets at Michael's.

Now it's back in the shop, just in time to decorate for Christmas!

I gotta be honest.  I'm liking it better!

Now those doors aren't going to waste!

Think I'll paint a sign on them.  

Stay tuned for that... when I come up for air again!

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I'm Back with a Killer Buffet

Well I've kicked off another school year.  It's fun having my kids and teachers back, but I've missed having the time to paint and create.

I finished a buffet this week and took it into the shop on Saturday.
I'm so happy with how it turned out!

It didn't start this fabulous, though.  I found her at a garage sale and she was in pathetic shape.  

 She was missing a door and had lots of veneer damage.

In the past I would have just sanded and painted so it wouldn't be so obvious.  But I found veneer edging at Lowes and decided to try it and patch the bad spots. 

First, I used a razor blade knife and cut the damaged areas into rectangles. I used a putty knife to gently pop the damaged areas off.  Super easy!

I measured the rectangles and cut the edging to fit.

The great thing about using the veneer edging was how easy it was to work with.  You can cut it with scissors and you iron it in place!

To be honest, my original plan was to patch it and stain it.  I didn't think about matching wood grains!  That didn't turn out so well!  So I puttied the edges of the patches and painted the top.

I painted the top in ASCP Duck Egg and the base in Old White.

The paint hasn't dried yet, but you can see how well the patch worked!  You really have to look to find it!

To deal with the missing door, I decided to take the other door off. I painted inside the cubbies Duck Egg as well.

Wow!  What a difference.  I wanted to use pewter knobs, so I distressed and used a gray glaze.

I found a couple of locker baskets that fit in the cubbies.

Perfect!

And to add to the surprise, I painted the sides of the drawers in Duck Egg and lined the drawers with some black and white damask paper.

It's in the shop now.  Any guesses on how long this one will last?

I'm a party animal!