Thrift Store Buffet Makeover

Don't you love when you find a great deal? There is no better place than thrift store shopping to find one; diamonds in the rough. I found a small buffet at a Good Will for $12 and was thrilled. Some people might think-' yum, no. I'm not buying that.' But, think of all the potential!

Here's the before shot:

Here's how I transformed the buffet table:
1. Lightly sand all surfaces.
2. Wipe it down. If the piece is especially smelly our musty smelling- bring it outside on a nice day and air it out. Then, douse a cloth with a vinegar and water mix and wipe it all down. I found vinegar to be a great way to help get rid of odors and clean surfaces.
3. Take off the hardware. You can also replace the knobs really easily if you need to. I spray painted the knobs gold and reused them. I spray painted them with this Krylon gold plate spray:

I wasn't sure if I could get those basket weave door-fronts off, but with a bit of prying they popped right out.

4. Prime it. For this table I used Zinzer oil based primer. This is the stinky stuff, but I found it's a great primer for adhering to laminate. Sometimes I use spray-paint primer - especially if it's difficult to get into the crevices and hard-to-reach nooks and crannies.
5. Paint. I chose Valspar's Peacock Blue in a Satin finish. I added a few tablespoons of Floetrol to the paint. Floetrol helps your painting go on smoother so you don't see brushstrokes (its essentially a thinning agent). This is especially important when using a true gloss finish. I did two coats of the paint. The Floetrol comes in this orange container (you can see it in this picture to the right).
6. Almost done... Once it's all dried you should protect your new beauty with either wax or Polyurathane. I did one coat of Poly in Satin for the table. Once its on and dried the Poly helps protect against scratches and the occasional 4-year-old.

Yes- sometimes I paint while my children watch a movie. (This is a picture of our old home in the basement.)

The lamps were also a thrift store find as well for $10 each. I spray painted them a cheery yellow. More about spray painting coming soon. Have you ever bought a piece of furniture with potential? I would love to hear what you did with it!

The Layered Look

We moved into our home on Valentines day 2013. In the few months that we have lived here, we have made a list of projects we want to tackle. I love finding treasures at Yard Sales, Salvation Army, and Craigslist.
Here is a quick and easy project that added a touch of uniqueness to our family room mantle. Everything except for the painting came from yard sales (vases), Salvation Army (Books), and Craigslist (shutters for $10). The shutters I got were weathered and pretty beat up. I sanded them down and painted them with Annie Sloane Chalk Paint (Paris Gray), which gave them a second life!

My grandmother had painted this small oil and I wanted to display it above our mantel, but it's not large so I liked the idea of layering it on the shutters to give it length and depth. The shutters are also great at any season to put a wreath or chalkboard art, or a mirror on top.

There are some other ideas for our mantle that I'm working on so stay tuned. Whenever I find things that I like I keep them on file on my Pintrest boards- come check them out.