Buffet Reveal: Distressing Painted Furniture with Stain

I finished my {new-to-me} antique buffet. Using my fail-proof method of distressing painted furniture with stain, this came together beautifully...

and it's a piece I'm super proud of.

I've been looking on {actually, stalking} Craigslist for the last two years looking for an antique buffet. The problem was...most of the ones on there were already refinished {where's the fun in that?} or way out of my budget...or only sold with an elaborate dining set. 

And then I came across Ashley's ad. We met and instantly hit it off. She showed me her grandmother's antique 100+ year old buffet and my heart went pitter-patter. She was so kind and gave me a good deal on the piece...and even separated it from the dining set it was listed with. And now...she reads this crazy blog of mine {hiiiiiii, Ashley!}.  


She was very quick to point out a few flaws in the finish when I looked at the piece...I wanted to let her know up front that I planned to refinish it. Sometimes Craigslisters may not love the fact that you're taking a beloved piece of theirs and completely changing it up, but she was super excited about it. She was so kind and told me several times that she was happy it was going to someone who really wanted it.

And, I really wanted it. Like a two-year itch, I did. 

The gang's all here. These are all of the products I used to refinish this. The red is Valspar's Fabulous Red...and it totally lived up to its name. 

I love to use a spray stripper. I feel like I have more control that way. And I'm a *slight* control freak. I use the scraper to pull the previous finish off, after the stripper had sat for about five minutes.

No stripper jokes today, friends...I think I stretched that out a bit too much in the last furniture refinishing post and made my mom's friends all blush and call each other. 

I digress...

I have to be honest, the stripping product didn't work as fabulously on this piece as on previous ones. So, it was back to basics. Or semi-basics, I suppose, I pulled out the sander. I started with 150 grit sandpaper and worked my way to 300 sanding the top down.

It took over two hours to sand the top of it down. But, man...it was worth it. 

I got it down to the bare wood and it was so soft and perfect to the touch.

It soaked the stain in beautifully. B-E-A-utifully.

I use the staining pad when just straight-staining a part of a piece. And I still love this look of a stained top and a painted bottom. To be clear, I'm referencing furniture here.

I did four coats of stain on top. {Sometimes I just can't leave well enough alone}.

I sanded with 400 grit paper between the first two coats of stain 

{I also left room for plenty of drying time in between staining and sanding}. 

Instead of stripping the bottom, too, I used the Zinsser primer that is designed to cover anything {because I wasn't 100% sure what the original finish was, as in oil based or not?} This primer really works...I painted a mirror with it, for crying out loud.

Then it was on to the red. It took three coats. Three. But, I persevered.

Truthfully, it could have probably taken a fourth coat, too. But that would have sent me to the looney bin. Each coat took 24 hours to dry...so the three coats took three full days. And I'm just not a patient person.

After letting the last coat dry overnight, I went at the painted areas with the sander.

So many of you have chatted with me about this method, so I made a video just for YOU with the step-by-step process:

You can watch it here. 

Again, to see the complete "aging with stain" process, 

watch my video on this piece, here.

After the aging, I went over the entire piece with satin polyurethane {I did the top twice and sanded lightly with 400 grit sandpaper in between coats}.

I opted to leave the hardware in the original state. I thought about using some Brass-O to clean it, but I decided the aged bronze was a bit more true to the shabby finish I gave her. And truly, I've never redone a piece in which the original hardware was in such great shape that I could use it on the refinished piece. This was a very well-cared for piece!

The only other thing I may go back and do later is mod-podge a pretty patterned paper into the cabinets and drawers {just on the inside}. 

I love how it turned out. 

The stained top with all of its marble-y goodness is my fave.

I can't wait to get her into my kitchen and really enjoy the heck out of her. Can you imagine how pretty all of the Thanksgiving pies will look displayed on this? I'm giddy. 

Do you have any furniture projects on your summer to-do list?

{I still have three more pieces in my garage awaiting refinishing...another day!}

{i linky-party here}

and at Coastal Charm and Savvy Southern Style

Neglect your chores like me and don't miss a thing:

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