My Masterpiece Buffet
It’s finally done! I finished the buffet for myself…well, our home…not that it really matters to any of the other house dwellers. But they do agree it turned out pretty funky. Funky, Junky…to be exact!
I first saw this beauty at the home of an old friend. I was buying a whole load of her family’s heirlooms for the store. I fell in love with it immediately, but knew with a grad party on the horizon, I didn’t have the money or the time for it. I let her know I was interested, but understood if she sold it to someone else. I snapped a pic on my phone and wrote down the dimensions. She was gracious enough to keep it for me until a few months ago. Once I got it all sanded and cleaned up, I had to culminate the ideas that had been circling in my head as to how this piece should be.
Over the past few years there have been a few pieces I’ve done where I thought, “Wow, that turned out really cool”. They’re the pieces that I have had a hard time parting with because I’ve fallen head over heels in love with them, but it’s what I do-make things and then part with them. I wanted this buffet that I’ll pass by every day to be a combination of these pieces:
I loved how the cross members of the hutchtop in the first picture contrasted with the mossy green drawers. The planked rustic workbench table really came to life once I added the hardware. I knew I wanted to make a statement with collected, junky knobs. I accidently came up with the idea of adding a pendant knob to an old hinge when I was trying to cover some extra holes. Definitely wanted to do that on this buffet. I also not only wanted my favorite color green, but wanted my other favorite aqua, and also some beautiful vintage wood tones. I love the contrast of wood and paint.
I decided on the Miss Mustard Seed Milk paint in Boxwood Green, Kitchen Scale, and the brand new white, Marzipan. After hand distressing, I sealed the paint with hemp oil. I gel stained the top with Minwax’s Provincial, and will add a coat of poly to that for protection.
Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint is a powdered paint, so it’s very different to use, but I have grown to love how it works on these old pieces. It gives them a timeworn appearance that looks very natural and original.
I hate taping, because it’s so time consuming, but I needed to with this piece to delineate the different colors I was painting, and to protect the top that I wanted to stain. There were also quite a few places that I had to glue and clamp the veneer that was pulling away.
Once it was all painted, sanded, stained, and sealed, I had fun picking out the hardware. I always have a little trove of special pieces that have memories, and/or are too cool to part with. It took a while to figure out the balance of textures, but I’m thrilled with how it turned out.
The glass knobs were from the built-in linen closet from my parental home, the handles from my Grandma’s desk, the big clamshell hinges from a good friend’s home who moved away, and the Victorian hinges came off the door I bought for our bathroom. I only had to purchase the white teardrops from Anthro. The adorable clock faces were from some clocks we cannibalized for the store. The gears all sold for jewelry…I wasn’t parting with the numbered faces.
Here’s a closer look at the beautiful details, painted in my favorite colors. This piece has the perfect combination of feminine and masculine details, both curvy and straight, heavy and delicate.
This piece exceeded my visions. I’m looking forward to using it for functionality, but even more so, to enjoy it’s beauty through the seasons.