I settled on this maple buffet below by Pennsylvania House, and am in the process of prepping it for paint. Remember my dining chairs? Well I am going to go with a pale grey/blue paint and replace the hardware with weathered hammered iron cup pulls and knobs. I may remove the bottom drawer and replace with two large baskets. I may also replace the back of the step back shelf with more traditional bead board.
I am not a fan of the overly distressed shabby chic look, so I will be painting a solid coat and no rubbing. I decided against Annie Sloans Chalk Paint on the basis of cost and a limited range of colors. I get that you can do mixing, but any error would result in having to buy another pint of the stuff for $38 bucks. So I'm opting for elbow grease and traditional paint.
Don't forget, Those bookcases are being moved into the office and the console table will be put back into the living room. So it will just be the dining set and buffet in there.
I have a few questions for those of you who have painted furniture before with traditional paints:
- What brands do you like for covering finished furniture?
- How much tooth to give the furniture first? The surface of the bottom of the buffet is fairly beat up with small scratches, some dents and a fair amount of chipped finish. I'm using 100 grit paper to knock down the larger scratches and the chipped finish areas. Then I'm ussing 220 to go over it again and feather out the deeper sanded areas. I'm leaving the dents for now (see below).
- The step-back top is more detailed with dental molding. The finish is in good shape. I was told I should be able to paint it without prep with a Glidden all-in-one primer/paint. I don't plan on keeping the top forever, but it temporarily solves my problem of not wanting to hang shelves from the wall in my rental. Should I try the all-in-one?
- Distressing? As I said, I don't plan to rub back the paint at all, but there are some small dings and dents in the piece that are attractive wear and tear (character marks). I'm thinking of leaving them in. What do you think? If I do that, I will probably strategically add a few myself. Probably by using some antique nail heads and a light mallet to tap in some dents.
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