Wednesday, April 4, 2012

The buffet that ate my house

First of all, let me say I'm embarrassed by the awful pictures. This buffet is so huge i had to paint it in the livingroom, smashed between the bookshelf and the couch. We had snow so painting it in the freezing cold garage was out of the question.

There is no natural light behind the couch. And there is no room to take decent pictures. I tried standing on the couch but I wobbled too much, plus I was afraid of falling to my death.

This is my first gigantic piece of furniture and it taught me a lot. The most important lesson (after, like 5 coats) was to use WIPE ON poly. Hours could have been saved. Hours!

Here is the Beast before:



A dog tried to eat it.




Six-inch pulls meant I had to use wood filler in the holes and drill new ones. Actually, Mr. Bad did the drilling. He gets all kinds of freaked out when I use power tools while he's away.



Want to see the half-a-dead-mouse my cat left for me while I worked? No? Okay. How 'bout the 2 birds? Gopher?
My cat must have thought I needed rewarded for
working so hard.

The finished buffet, along with Morgan, Battle Cat.





I did very, very light distressing and glazing.








Whew, finally finished. I was on a deadline with this one. I thought I had all the time in the world - a week and a half before my new booth opened. Then Real Life struck. Mr. Bad Rabbit was stuck in Portland due to snow so I was without heavy-lifting muscle. Then, surprise, I had to go to town every day for transfusions and those wonderful Shots-In-The-Belly. That was an entire 5 days KILLED. Plus we went to the Vegas Gift Show, eating up another 5 days. So the pressure was on! Maybe my cat sensed the stress level and brought me the dead stuff as encouragement.

While I waited for paint to dry, I busied myself cleaning blood off the carpet. Not exactly soothing.



This buffet cost me $35 at a local thrift store. I was beyond thrilled! I'm normally the person who arrives just in time to see the really good stuff being pushed out the door by someone else.

I used Annie Sloan Paris Gray mixed with Milk Paint Sage; Annie Sloan Old White; and Milk Paint Lamp Black mixed with Paris Gray. (I was out of Graphite)


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8 comments:

  1. That looks so great Daena!! LOVE the greys. And the cat presents...can you head me laughing out loud? That is so funny. I am glad Socks and Dash don't give me presents like that.

    And finally I love that Michael is now referred to as Mr. Bad :)

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  2. Linda restauração. Muito criativo e elegante

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  3. Good job! I'm sure if I'd have been there watching you, I'd bring you little presents to encourage you too --- but mine probably wouldn't have been dead!

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  4. This is awesome and what a lucky day when you found this! I love how you painted it and it sounds like you have the same kind of unluck I have when it comes to thinking there's all kinds of time to do something.

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  5. What an amazing piece!!! WOW! But those belly shots, I hate them too. How are you feeling?? Thinking of you...

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  6. Unbelievable transformation! This is drop dead gorgeous :) WOW!!!

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  7. Too cool to not feature - it'll be on my list of favorites at tonight's Trash 2 Treasure Party!! :)

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  8. Love this! the woman that bought it today was really happy with it. I really like all your furniture it very creative.
    Emily
    http://emilymacleoud.blogspot.com

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