Match New Paint To An Old Paint Job, step by step

Let us talk about the buffet again. Remember the one that we got for a steal off craigslist and parked in our entryway? Here he is now to jog your memory (sidenote: I think everyone should consistently pronounce jog as yog and jogging as yogging – it is infinitely funnier).

Dude was vivid, but he had a few little bumps and bruises that I hoped to heal. I hoped to play nurse with the buffet, ok?

So file this under especially speedy swift fixes – heck the whole thing only took about half an hour and ran me under $3. As for my materials list, here it is:

Yup, all it took was a small craft brush that I already had and a $2.99 test pot of paint from Home Depot in the closest possible color to the buffet (I brought home a ton of swatches and held them up to see which ones melted right in and looked nearly identical). Oh and the winning color was Cricket by Behr for anyone who is looking for a soft moody green tone).

As for my technique, first I prepped the whole buffet by:

• using Gorilla Glue to secure any loose trim pieces or small wood carvings to adhere them for the long haul (I noticed some wiggly things that I feared might chip or fall off with daily use, so I stuck it to them and gave everything a full day of curing time before moving on to the next step)
• giving it an awesomely cathartic scrub-down with a Magic Eraser (there were some dingy areas that were sort of smudgy and gray, like a lead pencil rubbing, and they came up with some scrubbing, so it looks a lot less muddled)

Then it was paintin’ time…

I simply used that small brush to paint wherever I saw big chunks of bare wood. First I brushed it on and then I blended things with the swipe of a paper towel. I did not want things to be thick or ideal, so that paper towel swipe helped to sort of “distress” that area so it blended right in with the rest of it (which is certainly not pristine at all). We enjoy all of the little imperfections and rough spots – so this process was truly simply about filling in those big gaping holes where something clearly broke off or was much more damaged than a little timeworn distressing.

Here is a little side by side comparison to assist you see what I mean. I did not fill in all the dark spots or scratches, simply the big gaps. And once the paint dried (it consistently looks too light when it is going on) it looked fairly darn seamless.

Here is another detail to show you the difference. Before:

And after:

So now she still looks old and enjoyed, but does not put out that dinged-with-a-baseball-bat effect that she was subtly broadcasting before. Boom. Swift, straightforward, and low-cost. Oh and you might notice that our snake-riddled pumpkins are not up on the console in this pic (they moved outside to the porch), but I have some plans to do a little fall-a-fying to this surface soon. Oh yeah, momma’s feeling a case of crafty comin’ on…

Anyway, after gluing, scrubbing, and painting this bad girl, all that was left of Operation Buffet-mou-flage was to apply three thin and even coats of SafeCoat Acrylacq (it is my quite go-to non-toxic sealer, which comes in a satin finish so it is not all shiny and obvious).

We like to apply it with a small foam roller so it is pleasant and thinly spread (thick = gloppy).

And as for the more detailed (aka: bumpy parts) a small brush works to get into those grooves. Thin and even is the key though. Otherwise you are veering off into gloppy territory again.

Now this baby deserves a “lovingly restored” sticker. Except please do not put a sticker on my buffet or $herdog will get feisty. Thankfully Clara simply contains them to various body parts:

Atta girl.

Anyone else out there showing some enjoy to old pieces of furniture without straight up stripping them down and starting over? I gotta say, it is a pleasant four-hour project instead of spending a full weekend on something. Those are consistently pleasant, right? It gives you more time to gorge on candy corn and then royally regret it about an hour later. Or is that simply me?

Psst- Clara’s at it again with her hilariously random conversations here on the house Life.