Hands down my very most favoritest thing in our house right now!!! In all my crafty and handiness projects this one I am most proud of! I consider this my "baby" of sorts. The nesting my body seemed to want to proceed with. A form of therapy and way to keep my mind busy in the recent trying months..
It all started with a Craigslist post from an antique dealer. A strange interaction of sorts. She listed the Thomasville hutch/buffet half price because she wanted it out of her booth as it was taking up too much space. I called for measurements. She never got back with me, so I assumed it sold. A week later she calls me and said she felt compelled to call and ask if I was still interested (she thought she had sent the measurements to me). I told her YES I was! She reported she had tons of interest in the piece and had decided if I didn't want it she would keep the full price tag on it and wait for the right buyer to come along. She agreed to sell it to us for her 1/2 price listing!!
When arranging the details for pick up she was saddened that I wouldn't be making the trip with Matt to pick it up, which when you are dealing with a stranger made me feel kinda funny about why she was so insistent I come along. You want to believe everyone has good intentions in this world, but sadly that is not always true. Through our conversations she says she was just really hoping to meet me because I seemed so sweet on the phone. Awe- thanks lady-I've-never-met! Very kind of you!!
Going on the assumption the lady really was an antique dealer with impeccable taste in judging people's character over the phone and NOT the next Craigslist killer - I sent Matt to retrieve it. He happened to be working up north so it was conveniently located. Even as Matt was loading it she kept saying "I'm not sure why I'm selling it for this price." :) Fifteen minutes after loading mother nature decided to produce on of the biggest storms I've seen hit metro Atlanta. A quick stop at Home Depot for plastic and tape, then a two hour drive he got it home bone dry and safe!
Anywho's here's the particulars- (scroll to the bottom if you are just interested in the final product and not the process.)
The {BEFORE} of the Massive, MASSIVE hutch & buffet.
Cabinets on each side with drawers above.
Three drawers down the center and then the top "drawer" has a flip down front & pulls out. I'm assuming it was additional serving space for food, platters or larger serving pieces?? I saw it as the perfect tv components area!!!
Oh, Mr Lion head. At first I didn't like you and assumed you would be a for sure gonner. Then you grew on me and I thought you might stay. Then I realized that was a good thing b/c the lion heads attach in a special way on the center drawer so replacement would have been very difficult. The other hardware is beautiful and we didn't change one bit! The side top drawers are divided and velvet lined. The kids have found fun storing remotes and Playstation controllers in them. I say- whatever gets ya to pick them up!
The {During} of turning Hutch/Buffet to TV cabinet.
Now for the finish. This was a new product to me. After hours of Pinterest and YouTube research we bit the bullet and visited a local Annie Sloan Chalk paint distributer. Note: this chalk paint is NOT chalkboard paint. We purchased a few sample jars and the finishing wax in both clear and dark. We left without a quart of paint b/c she was out of the blue/gray Duck Egg Blue and we were pretty sure that was the color we wanted. Well, once home we decided Provence (the blue/green we got a sample of) was the color we wanted. So, we returned to the distributer and got us a quart. Now- the paint is "pricy" when comparing to a quart of latex. HOWEVER the rumor of this paint is true...NO PREP! No sanding. No primer. Just paint! My original plan was to sand, prime, paint, distress, stain the distressed areas and then poly. THAT would have required several purchases! This method with Chalk paint required the paint (& very little of it I might add!), a new Purdy brush and the clear wax. I wanted a worn/distressed look and thought the dark wax would be how I would achieve that...I was wrong. I didn't need it...for this project anyway! ;)
All the pieces arranged and ready for painting! This paint went on like a dream! It does dry pretty quick & can appear to have lots of brush strokes on the first coat.
Worked my way around the piece and painted the drawers. Once the first coat was on I began to realize if I had more strategically applied the first coat it could have been the only coat since we were wanting the worn look. However, in some areas I had been more heavy handed so some had the more dry brushed wood finish showing through and other areas were more covered with the paint. So, a quick light sanding with 220 sanding block to help eliminate potential brush strokes followed by a wipe down to remove sanding dust and on to the second coat I went.
Initially my plan was to paint the entire piece and was saving the LOOOONG solid top for the last when I had the feel of using the paint. Well, the longer the top was wood, the more I liked it! The finish was a bit scratched from the hutch sitting on top. So, we bought some stripper and removed the old finish. Applied coats of Dark Walnut followed by poly and wahhh-lahh! About this time it's very apparent our office walls are a pretty close match to the paint color for this piece! ha!
What you can not see in the above photo is the distressing. My goal was not a heavily distressed and "dirty" piece. We were after a worn look. So after the second coat of paint I took my 220 and 320 sanding blocks and started removing paint on the "high points" of the cabinet. Annie Sloan herself and many tutorials suggest sanding AFTER waxing, but AFTER didn't seem right to me. The distributor we bought from said she sands BEFORE waxing. So that was my plan. It worked great! The "chalkiness" of the paint makes the distressing SO easy! I can't imagine how gunky my sanding blocks would have been if sanding after waxing!
As I said I hit the high points of the trim work, the edges of the drawers and doors & the corners of the cabinet. I love the worn look especially with 3 kiddos! After the distressing I gave the whole piece a good wipe down and then moved on to the waxing. Now, that's a whole new thing for me and does take some getting used to. I watched several videos which showed several different ways to wax. I opted to apply the clear wax with a rag. You need very, VERY little. Go with the mind set that you can always add more. Better to have too little on the first coat than a thick sticky layer. As you apply the wax you can see it deepen and enrich the color of the paint. SO beautiful! I would run my hand over the piece and if it feels sticky you are using too much! For the waxing channel your inner Karate Kid and wipe wax on a section of your piece with one rag and use another rag to wipe off. Don't panic if your wax rag turns the color of your paint. Some of the paint residue might come off to your rag. I applied one layer of wax and then the next day applied a much much lighter layer of wax. It's amazing the silky smooth finish! I was so pleased. As a paint line/brush stroke freak I was a bit apprehensive if I would be able to handle it if I ended up with a bunch of brush strokes- but I didn't! I just love it!! It's such a smooth, clean finish!
Hardware back on, piece in place under the hugemongo TV. It was going to take a big piece to anchor the TV on a 20 ft wall in a living room that is open to our second story. I just love it! It's lacking accessories and would love to hide the black bundle of cords! This shows the true color of the paint. Some of these pics make it look more gray/blue and the true color is more of an aqua green/blue.
The {AFTER}!!!!
Here's the after of the interior which shows how we are utilizing it. I opted not to paint the insides with exception of the pull out drawer that holds the dish box and Playstation. Much to my surprise so many components have strong wireless capabilities so we don't even need to have this center area flipped down unless the Playstation in being used to help with ventilation. If we are just watching TV it can be closed up.
Our movie binders are in the left cabinet. Extra room to store more- although we have waaaay too many movies as is! The right side holds Isaac's basket of Duplo Legos and usually the bag of regular Legos sit on top of that, but they had them dumped all over the floor when I took the pic. :)
The three center drawers- one holds Lego creations that the world would crumble if we took them apart when it is pick-up time! The other drawer holds the video games & Disney Infinity stuff with room to spare. And GASP!- one drawer is empty!!!!
This entire project used less than 1/3 of the paint in the can and maybe a couple tablespoons of wax so I see many more projects in the future. A pile of lumber in the garage, once built, will be my next big painting project that will be having me sleeping easy! :)
This piece replaces one of our first furniture DIY redo's we did back in '10. Glad to see it go. The new color brightens up the place and balances the darkness of the TV.
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