Kathy's Buffet

This old beauty of a buffet was in desperate need of some TLC. Thankfully, it caught the eye of one of our ReStore volunteers! Kathy purchased it (for less than $50! Whatta steal!), took it home, and spruced it up as a gift for her daughter. 

Chalk paint all the way!

Kathy's daughter wanted caning for the face of the buffet.
​Tip: if the caning is hard to work with, soak it in warm water for 15-20 minutes to soften it. Then apply it to your piece with spray adhesive!

To update the look of the piece, Kathy cut off the original legs and added new ones.

After attaching the legs, Kathy painted the entire piece with dark grey chalk paint. After it dried, she gave it a second coat. Then it was time to wax! She gave the buffet one coat of CLEAR wax and let it dry. Then, to complete the look, she added an even coat of black wax. To seal everything up, she completed the piece with another coat of clear wax.

Next came the caning, an element Kathy's daughter specifically requested for this piece.

Once the black wax was done, Kathy wasn't 100% sure if the caning was what the buffet needed. While the texture was a welcome addition, the color hid the decorative drawer pulls. In a best-of-both-worlds approach, Kathy ended up painting the caning black.

Without caning

With caning

Caning painted black

Projects like these are a delight to see. Sometimes at the ReStore it's easy to overlook roughed up and well-used things in favor of newer, cleaner options. But now? Now it's clear that this piece of furniture was well-made and worth the time and effort Kathy put into it. Hopefully it will last her daughter a good long while. And who knows? Maybe someday way in the future it will turn up in another ReStore looking worse for the wear, just waiting for another creative individual to work their magic!