Giving new life to a buffet

Our in-laws were working on reorganizing their house. In the process, they decided to discard a piece of furniture- an old buffet they had picked up years ago, added legs and painted. When we heard they were getting rid of the piece, we jumped on the chance to make it ours. We brought it home where it sat in the middle of the office for one month.  

Buffet when we brought it home

On a warm day, we took the buffet outside to dismantle it. The legs were already removed and the back was badly damaged. We removed the back and the drawers, took out nails, added nails, and sanded the piece. Having lived in an area with salty air, the hardware on the buffet also needed to be removed and were too rusty to reuse.

Buffet sanded and ready for priming

After taking a dry cloth to wipe the dust away, we moved the buffet to our painting room – aka our living room. In our painting room, the buffet was primed and painted a custom shade of blue.

Buffet after priming

The Mister did not like the previous legs which were attached with a few screws and plates since they were quite skinny and unsturdy. It seems at one time in the buffet’s life that it had legs fully attached from top to bottom, but when The Mister’s parents received it, the original legs were gone. When we brought it home, The Mister’s parents had already removed the legs they had installed many years prior. It made it easier to transport in the car. The Mister and I went back and forth discussing table legs and finally agreed upon the Country Pine legs.

We worked late evenings to trim the bottom of the buffet so that it was flat. (It was dark so there are no photos of this process.) Since we surmised that there were legs on the original buffet based on the rounded edges of each corner, The Mister trimmed these rounded edges with a circular saw creating a flat surface for the new legs. Using the Kreg jig, The Mister drilled three holes in each leg and attached them to the buffet using 2inch screws. Once the legs were attached, I puttied and sanded, puttied and sanded some more to create a smooth surface. It isn’t perfect, but after a coat of primer and three coats of paint it looks pretty good.

Painted buffet

We ordered 6 Satin Nickel Hickory Hardware Camarilla ring pulls and ninety-eight days after bringing the buffet home, it was done. (For all of those blogs that talk about keeping it real, it seems that all of our projects, even the "quick" ones, drag out for an extended period of time. :) )  

Buffet, A work in progress

We gave a used buffet second life (or is it third now?) and it will be great storage in the office.  Does it take you over three months to complete what was supposed to have been a simple furniture project? Or are we the only ones who have projects that drag out?