technology communication: The Baking Bookworm: Buffet DIY

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

The Baking Bookworm: Buffet DIY - From Knotty to Sassy

About a year ago?my good friends Beth and Chris?posted on Facebook that they had an IKEA buffet that?they were giving away.? Not one to pass up an opportunity I said I'd love to take it off their hands.?? I had wanted a sofa table for?behind our loveseat in our family room but a buffet would be even better since I could use it for extra storage.? The buffet looks?onto our kitchen so it's a perfect spot to house napkins, placemats,?cameras?and our much used board games.

Now, I have nothing against knotty pine?--?it's just not?my thang and doesn't really 'go' with the other?furniture/woods in my house.? Since this buffet was free I decided to throw my Type A/'what-if-I-screw-it-up?' mentality out the window and paint this puppy up!? Armed with only the advice of?my Benjamin Moore dealer, my inability to judge how long tasks truly take?and some free time while the kids were in school and Brad was in Romania on business I went to town on this buffet.?

I am truly thankful that I consulted?my BM dealer before I began.? Apparently since this piece has oodles of knots in the pine I couldn't just use my regular Bullseye Primer.? It had to be a special primer otherwise the knots would suck up the paint differently and I'd have a blotchy buffet.? Huh.? This special primer, BIN 2, ?is still my beloved Zinsser?Bullseye but it also?has shellac in it.? It worked wonderfully to give the piece a very consistent look and making the knots a thing of the past.? It's smelly as all get out but if you paint your piece in an area with good air flow you'll be fine.

Now, while I was?hanging with my paint peeps?I also picked up a very sassy 'Rapture' red (CC-66)?in their Aura?line of paints.??See, if I was going to put a lot of time into painting this piece I wanted a great quality paint and a colour that would stand out in my very beige and brown family room/kitchen.? With hints of green and red throughout the family room already?I thought a big pop of colour is just what the room needed to bring it up a notch.? Was I a little scared of painting something a deep red?? You bet your sweet bippy I was but I got over my worrisome self, put my big girl panties on,?picked up a brush and?opened my can of primer!?

Note: This is me at my most bad ass.

You may?notice in the picture below?that I have an elastic band over the top of my primer can.? I gleaned this little tip from Pinterest (ie. crack for moms).? While it was very useful?to remove the excess paint from my brush while I was painting, getting the elastic off the can?without splattering paint on my person was a whole other story.? Needless to say I removed it out on the lawn ... and proceeded to splatter my legs in little bits of white shellac-laden paint.? Nice.? Live and learn.

Now that I have my paint and supplies ready I needed to get a place set up where I could paint in peace.? You know, some place professional to go in line with my mad, mad painting talent. Ya, it's just my garage but it worked well.? Above is my set up with some old blankets as drop cloths and some food bins and cardboard boxes to set my doors upon.? Painting is nothing if not glamorous.
Things quickly changed with my set up.? With the serious heat wave that hit us there was no way that I could successfully (or without losing my mind) paint in my garage in the heat.? Therefore I moved my painting project into the kitchen.? Nothing makes Brad ~~get that 'what were you thinking?' face~~ happier than seeing me paint something red on our kitchen table while being distracted while I watch TV -- which is why I did this while he was in Romania. ?The picture above shows the doors on my kitchen table with one coat of red.? Not bad but the brush strokes were pretty apparent.

After another coat of paint the cabinet and all its parts were looking mighty fine (but I did end up doing another coat because my Type A personality couldn't let go of the fact that I could see a few brush strokes still).

By this time the allure of painting a piece of furniture and making it?my own was wearing off a bit.? I had been painting daily for about an hour and a half each time.? I was hot, my back hurt and I just wanted all my ~~crap~~ beloved things that I had taken out of said buffet to be put back into it and not remain in a pile in my kitchen.? The honeymoon with painting was over and I was in the home stretch.? Let's get 'er done!

I pulled a little more patience out of my back pocket and finished it up.??Once I was done?the buffet, in all its various pieces, sat in my garage for 3 weeks so the paint could fully cure.? Because?paint doesn't dry, people, it cures.? Brad says so.? During this curing process no one was to touch it, sneeze near it or even look at it wrong.? This paint was going to cure good and long so I wouldn't get any dings or scratches easily into my finished piece.?

This is the little piece of info people forget to tell you.? Don't go slapping on layer after layer of paint then expect to use it?as soon as it's dry to the touch.? It ain't ready!? Let it sit?a few weeks if possible and you won't regret it.??After those weeks of curing Brad and I put it all together, added my loverly black metal knobs and voila!? It's done!? My buffet has a big old make-over and I love it.?

And now ... the big reveal.? Drum roll please .....

A little red will bring out the sassy side of anything, right??

I have linked this project to the following blogs: