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A French buffet given a coat of charcoal-coloured Dulux Enamel after sanding, with fabric added to the drawers.
The project
I was given this large French polished buffet. I actually didn’t know where to start and had never undertaken a project like this. I began by sanding the top and realised very quickly I had gone through the veneer. I didn’t even know about this.
When I sanded the top, my goal was to expose some lovely timber and stain it. However, I just kept sanding and suddenly the more I sanded the worse it looked. Also, a weird red stain started appearing and the grain of the top was going in all directions. I realised this was not solid wood but chipboard or something. I decided to paint it black, my number one mistake. I didn’t use an undercoat. From then on, nothing I tried looked smooth and even. Eventually, I sanded everything back and did the undercoat. It was certainly worth doing this.
I tried so many methods to paint the top. I ended up using Dulux Enamel in Charcoal. I needed to come up with a solution for the very rough damaged cupboard doors and decided to cover them with Mod Podge and black material. This worked. I sanded the drawers but they were so red with stain, I tried bleaching the drawers. No luck there either, so they were painted and the top drawer with key covered in material. I ordered the gold handles online and overall was quite happy with the results. Every time I came upon a problem I just kept trying things until something worked. I love the results now.
I couldn’t get the drawers back to a nice finish either. So, I went to Spotlight, grabbed some slightly woven material, which overlapped the drawers, applied Mod Podge to the fabric and drawer and stuck them down. The best bet is to not cut the material to fit until you have glued it down.
The next day I applied some layers of topcoat waiting for each to dry. This worked really well and I was then able to use a Stanley Knife to cut the excess off. The material goes very hard and just looked great when it all dried.
More inspiration for your buffet project
Community member Jess completed a buffet makeover by lightly distressing the paint and adding vintage handles.
Workshop member Claire upcycled her kitchen buffet with royal blue and pink paint and then added finger handles.
Check out our collection of Upcycled buffets by Bunnings Workshop members for more inspiration for your project.
Good Afternoon @ChrissyC
Oh yeahhhhhh. Now that is a whole new piece of furniture! The texture of the doors caught my eyes and then everything just flowed together.
Love your explanation as well 
You have explained your steps and thinking! Including when things went wrong
It looks very French and very high end. Envious!
Dave
