If thrifted furniture finds were stray puppies, I’d have about 40 dogs in my house right now. Which would be fun and all… except I bet the strays I find are way less messy and don’t chew my shoes as much.
My latest thrift store stray though almost stole my heart as quickly as our Yorkie pup Lola did (who coincidentally, we rescued from Craigslist).
This marble topped, solid wood beauty just happened to come along in time for me to give it a facelift for this month’s Trash to Treasure Transformation Tuesday (you can check out some of my blogger friends’ thrifted flips at the end of this post).
Can you believe it was only $130 at the thrift store?! I’ve seen buffets identical to this go for $600+ in antique shops.
Ever since we moved into this house, I’ve had this vision for the blank wall in our kitchen that was just begging for a coffee bar. Plus, with all of the white on our kitchen cabinets and backsplash, I was really hoping for something wood to add texture and contrast in this space. And we really really needed the extra storage.
All the buffet needed was a quick cleaning and some white wax.
Supplied Used: (Some affiliate links are provided below for convenience.)
- Simple Green
- Baking Soda
- Water
- Small bowl and stir stick
- Spatula
- Plastic cling wrap
- Clear Gorilla epoxy
- Homestead House Cappuccino Stain & Finishing Oil (to touch up damaged wood spots)
- Miss Mustard Seed White Wax
- Wax brush
- Dry lint-free rag
- Keyhole covers
The buffet was really grimy to begin with, so I gave the wood a good scrub down first with Simple Green, like I usually do with most furniture (because um… who knows what could be living all over it… bleck).
A couple of months ago, I found a smaller marble topped chest on Craigslist to put in our foyer, so I was able to clean it the exact same way. (You can check out this post for all of the steps to cleaning marble using just baking soda and water.)
To patch two holes in the marble, I filled them with the clear Gorilla epoxy.
And for the wood part of the piece, I touched up the damaged raw wood spots with a small sample pot I already had of the Homestead House Cappuccino Stain.
After the stain had dried overnight, I applied the white wax with the wax brush. I worked on one side at a time by just brushing on the wax and working it into the details and corners, then lightly buffing with the dry rag.
There’s really no science to it. It’s just a matter of adding as much or as little as you want, and if you would like to remove any of the white wax, you can use a rag to apply a bit of clear wax in the spots where you prefer less of the white.
I love the roughness this piece has to it now, and since the wood was in pretty bad shape to begin with, I don’t at all feel bad about adding that lime finish layer. Woot woot texture!
Since the two key holes on the doors were badly damaged, I ended up adding these bronze keyhole covers too.
When I was trying to decide what to hang above the coffee bar though, I kept thinking I should try to build a plate rack with a few pegs for coffee cups, but then I found this one at IKEA that was exactly what I planned to build! And it was $80, so almost what I’d spend in supplies, plus it’d take a whole lot less time.
The plate rack is called Gamleby at IKEA (although, in my head I make up English words for all of the Swedish words in the store and just call it “Gumby”… you know the little claymation green guy? This is how my brain works, apparently.)
It was plain wood to begin with, so I brushed on two coats of Fusion Mineral Paint Coal Black before putting it together.
Robert and I hung it up over the weekend, and I had way too much fun styling it with our white dishes (that were the best wedding registry items in the history of ever).
While I was gone to the Haven Conference in Atlanta the other week, Robert surprised me with this Keurig, which he calls “Bless’er House Blue”. I guess I use that color a lot. Ya think?! (I have an aqua blue problem; I fully admit it.) Love this hubby of mine and have no idea how I got so lucky.
To store all of the K-Cups we’ve picked up for it, I got this water hyacinth box with a top to keep them hidden.
Monday mornings just got magically brighter. And really every morning now, for that matter.
I think after this buffet, our foyer chest, and our powder room floor, I finally have marble out of my system now. Just maybe.
If you want to know about any of the sources I used to decorate this wall, here’s the full list:
- Gamleby plate rack
- White china
- Olive branch garland
- Large wooden cutting board (similar)
- Small wooden cutting board
- Faux wood and marble melamine tray
- Water hyacinth storage box
- Wire drying rack
- Aqua blue Keurig
- Small scalloped cake stand
- Berry basket bowl
- Gray lace mugs
Between this buffet, our castoff kitchen table, and our junky antique banisters turned wall planter, all of the shabby strays in our house are looking pretty fab together. I’m constantly amazed at how a little imagination can do big things to make a house feel like home.
Eventually, I would love to replace these tile floors in our kitchen, but that’s another story for a different day. Got any ideas for what I can do to it in the meantime? Do I dare try to paint them? Have you ever painted ceramic tile before? (P.S. Speaking of which, we just did something amazing to our laundry room floors and I’m dying to show y’all! More about that later though.)
If you want more inspiration for how these other strays found a home, you can check out all of my T2T blogger pals’ posts here:
Clockwise from top left: Prodigal Pieces | Confessions of a Serial Do-It-Yourselfer | Artsy Chicks Rule | Girl in the Garage
Found any amazing thrift store finds yourself lately? I’d love to hear all about them!
The post White Waxed Coffee Bar Makeover appeared first on Bless'er House.
No comments:
Post a Comment