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Some sugar soap, sanding, and the right paint gave this old buffet a new lease of life.
The project
I got this buffet for free on Facebook Marketplace and it needed quite a bit of work. The glass sliding doors weren’t exactly sliding, big chunks of veneer were missing from the sides, and it had a million layers of paint. And the cherry on top was this smell that tells you how old this buffet was. (I'll you at the end how I got rid of it).
Here is how and what I used for this makeover. I cleaned the piece really well using Selley’s sugar soap. I then got to sanding using my Ryobi orbital sander and look what I found.
There were layers and layers of paint, so I continued sanding until I got to the bare wood.
Tip: If you want to upcycle a piece of furniture that was unprofessionally painted, you’d want to remove all the old paint so your new paint can adhere well to the surface.
Once that was done, I filled up all the gouges caused by the missing veneer using Timbermate’s wood filler, waited for it to dry and sanded it smooth.
I then primed the entire piece using British Paints 4-in-1 primer followed by three coats of that beautiful burnt orange colour by Pureco. For the legs, I used Rust-Oleum spray paint in black and White Knight spray paint in gold.
For the shelves, I used this herringbone Boyle's adhesive paper from Bunnings, attached the new hardware and there you have it.
And to remove the bad smell, which was predominantly in the drawers, I wiped the insides with vinegar, let it dry in the sun and conditioned all the exposed wood with Gilly's Carnauba polish, which smells amazing.
Before and after
More inspiration for your furniture upcycling
Community member Dana did lots of sanding in preparation for her buffet hutch upcycle project.
Workshop member Jess completed a buffet makeover with distressed paint and vintage handles.
Get more inspiration from our collection of upcycled buffets from Workshop community members.
