Big Honkin' Buffet in Vermont Slate

I just received a very kind email from one of my readers. She asked a question about a buffet makeover that I previously posted "before and after" pictures of.
This question made me realize that I never actually posted more than a simple "before and after" write up about this big honkin' buffet.

This, for anyone who may be interested, is a Thomasville buffet.
It's heavy.
It's big (a hair under 6' long and it just fit in the back of my Explorer).
It was in almost perfect condition.
It normally sells for around $1200 to $2500.
I bought it at the Salvation Army for $64. If you keep an eye out in those places, sometimes you come up with a true gem of a deal.

I removed all the hardware, doors, and drawers and gave it a good cleaning. Then gave it a couple of coats of CeCe Caldwell's Vermont Slate (one of my favorite of the CeCe Caldwell's colors).

Then I had to deal with the top. It's very hard to tell in the first picture but the top had scratches and a couple of small spots that were discolored. Because I wanted the top to be a natural wood color, I decided to try sanding.

No fun.
No.
Fun.
At.
All.
You can also see my Christmas tree from the year before still on the deck. Looks good for the middle of April don'tcha think? Of course we experimented by buying a potted tree for that Christmas and hadn't gotten around to planting it yet. For anyone wondering, it's now planted and were waiting to see if it's going to make it through the winter.

Anyway...back to the buffet.

I gave up on the sanding and decided to go for the liquid stuff. I was initially worried about using this stuff inside my house but it barely has a smell to it. I was surprised and grateful for that.

 

 

It took a few applications but I was finally making progress. You can see those funky discolored spots even better now (not sure if that's a good thing or not). After I was satisfied that I had all the original finish off and the funky spots under control, I hit it again with the sander to smooth the surface out.

 



And...here she be all sanded, stripped, sanded, and lookin' pretty good. Please don't mind what's left of the ratty flannel shirt (sniff...it was my favorite).

I used CeCe Caldwell's Clear Wax over the Vermont Slate and did some slight distressing.

I finished the top up with Minwax Golden Oak stain and 3 coats of Zar Classic Clear Polyurethane, lightly sanding between dried coats.
Just look at that shine.

 

 

Then came the challenge of taking a picture of it when it was seriously too big for the only spot in my house with a decent background (because no one wants to see my reflection in the dusty tv or the dirty dishes on my counter). On top of that I had serious glaring issues with all that shine and all the sun that comes in through my (cough, cough) dirty windows.

 

 

Other than clean a nasty build up of gunk out of them (I hate cleaning other people's gunk), I didn't do anything different with the hardware.

 



I took this down to my booth in Newport Marketplace and it sold less than 20 minutes after it was unloaded from my car.

So there you have it. The story about the Big Honkin' Buffet. I hope this answers my wonderful reader's questions (thank you so, so much for reading my blog).

For anyone living in or around the Upstate NY area, CeCe Caldwell's Natural Chalk + Clay Paints and Finishes are now available at Newport Marketplace on Rt 28 in Newport.