Dining room buffet refinished {for now}

Yesterday, I was all excited about showing you how I had done this buffet.  I am still on a high after this dresser redo from a couple of weeks ago.  Boy, pride does go before a fall.

I took this dresser-turned-buffet outside to the garage for a little funkifying, Lewis style.

 

After taping off the innards,

I painted it Rustoleum's dark gray.  This is the first time I haven't liked Rustoleum.  The paint spewed in places, but since I was going to distress it, I wasn't distressed about it.  A little refurbishing humor there.

After letting two coats of paint dry, I took to it with a hand sander.  Here's where I had problems.  I wanted to have the blue show through, and it did, but not enough, so, not content to leave well enough alone, I kept sanding until it may or may not resemble something that you would find in a haunted house.  Cue: eerie movie music

Ah, the close-ups.  The hand sander was not my friend on that right side.  I let the paint dry, but not cure, so it gummed up under the sandpaper.  It took a lot of elbow grease to make this presentable again.  You live and learn.

These are the drawers, and I like them {phew}.

After fixing it up the best I could, I used a stain to add some depth.  It was a more dramatic difference in person, but I think you can tell.  The top drawer is not yet stained, and the bottom one was stained.

After letting it dry overnight, I took it into the dining room.  I was nervous about seeing how it looked in the space, but didn't lose sleep over it or anything. Paint is inexpensive and I can always take another stab at it.  The painting and staining is the easy part.  It's the sanding that's murder.

Ella chose the knobs. I love them. Love. them. I'm all about random quirkiness. 

I like the idea of having something rustic in the dining room because everything else in there is more refined.  Hopefully it adds interest and not just weirdness. 

Maybe if I add some decoration to the top, and perhaps, a baby.

Much better!

So here's my verdict. I have decided I like the buffet on its own, but its gray tones don't seem to go along with the wood in the room right now. I think it will fit in more when I've done my stencil, which will be a subtle gray. I'll wait to change anything until I see the finished product.

If I don't like the buffet then, I'll redo it, and that's fine by me. If I do like it, I will give it a few coats of a clear gloss polyurethane. I think the dullness of the buffet is adding to the creepiness factor.

So there you have it.  Not a homerun, but not a strike out.  Kind of like what should have been at least two bases, but then the batter forgets where he is and starts skipping, so he only makes it to first.

Congratulate me on my very first sports analogy.  Pretty good, eh?