My husband and I recently moved this past summer/almost fall. The housing market in our area went absolutely crazy and I still think we were insane to move when we did, but nevertheless we made the leap. We moved from a 3+1 bungalow into another 3+1 bungalow ….But this one is a bit bigger and has a much smaller yard, so more manageable.
Along with this house came the joys of having a dining room! Which meant that I could go shopping at ReStore and look for a buffet that I could refinish.
So on a bit of a side note/tangent here, I went to ReStore with the husband and found a buffet that had so much potential and they had a deal on that all buffets were $40. Well this one had a price sticker of $75 on it. I’m a pretty big bargain hunter and did not want to pay that price. So we called over an associate who said this was not a buffet, but rather a dresser. My husband then pulled out the top drawer, which had a cutler insert in it and asked what kind of dresser has that. They were still adamant, but did work with us and we ended up paying $60 for the dresser itself. This was not a real antique or solid wood buffet, but had a nice antique-y look.
When we were selling our house, I ended up staying with my parents during the showings since we have two dogs and two cats and didn’t want to wrangle them every time there was a showing. Did I mention the market was INSANE?? We had so many showings it would have driven us both crazy.
During the time with my parents, I went shopping with my dad at Princess Auto. They have some pretty neat stuff, but I am always a little wary about the quality of the products. As we wandered up and down the aisles, I noticed a paint spray gun that was on sale for 50% off! So of course, knowing nothing about paint spray guns (other than that I wanted one), I asked my dad’s advice.
He took a look and said the HVLP one I was looking at would work for what I wanted, did not require a compressor and just needed to be plugged in. Sounds too good to be true? I thought so too. It was regular $85 and I ended up paying about $45 and I figured if it didn’t work well, that I wouldn’t be wasting a ton of money.
Wellwhen I found the buffet, this was my chance to use the spray paint gun!
The wood was in a bit of rough condition so Jeff (my husband) went around and patched this up with wood filler as best as he could. I meanwhile struggled to figure out how to remove the drawers – spoiler alert: I just had to pull really hard. *insert eye roll here*.
I then took off all the hardware and kept this separate. I liked the rustic/antique look of it and planned to paint this bad boy black and knew how sharp the original hardware would look with the refresh.
Now you probably know I’m terrible at taking ‘in between’ or in progress photos, so I only have one that shows part of the primer, but as usual, I use two coats of Kilz primer to make sure the final paint would stick well. You are supposed to be able to use it straight on the surface, but I’ve still had better luck and longevity when using it coupled with Kilz.
When painting the drawers and cabinet doors, I placed these on top wooden planks on top of saw horses so that I was able to paint all at once.
For the black (final paint) I used INSLX Cabinet Coat paint from Benjamin Moore. I used this paint for a dresser and had asked for black, but when I finished the dresser it ended up being more of a navy blue colour. When I enquired about this, the staff at our local Benjamin Moore (shout out to Cameron Paint for the kick-ass customer service) replaced the entire gallon and made sure that it was black.
Now this was my first time using the spray paint gun and it took a bit of trial and error. For the Kilz primer and the INSLX Cabinet Coat paint, I diluted both as follows:
1 cup paint to 20 mL of water.
Stir both really well (I just used a Tupperware container) and then you can pour it into the paint reservoir that attaches to the paint gun.
Now comes some trial and error: how to use the gun.
I used it first on a large piece of cardboard to make sure that I was comfortable with how it felt. You can set the nozzle to spray both vertically and horizontally as well as a more direct ‘circle’ of paint. I used all of these. You can also move the straw that dips into the reservoir and sucks the paint up towards the front or back of the reservoir so you can tilt the gun at all kinds of angles and it can still reach the paint. The last setting is the volume of paint that the gun sprays out. Too much and you can get drips or large bubbles shooting out! It just takes some experimentation and not worrying about messing up. You’ve got this and it will be fine!
You could also use a roller and paint brushes, however with the intricate pieces on the buffet, it was MUCH faster with a spray gun. I also recommend using a mask and goggles for your protection, especially when you are getting into the cabinets as there can be quite a bit of spray back. I also opted to paint the entire drawer instead of just the fronts as I plan to paint a design on the sides of the drawers that you can see when you pull them out.
Once you’re done, you just reassemble all the hardware and reattach. Make sure you aren’t layering each coat on really thick though as all this paint adds volume and can cause issues with drawers or cabinet doors closing properly. Mine worked out OK, but one of the doors was giving me a lot of trouble when closing!
Et voilà! With a little bit of elbow grease and some experimentation, you can take a piece of furniture and refresh it to make it look phenomenal!
Materials
- Paint spray gun *optional
- Roller and brushes (if not using the paint spray gun)
- Wood filler & sandpaper *optional
- Kilz primer paint *optional
- INSLX Cabinet Coat paint – or another finishing paint
- Screwdriver
- Saw horses
- Drop sheets/cardboard
- PPE: face mask, gloves, and goggles
Instructions
- Dismantle hardware off of piece of furniture.
- Set up saw horses and planks of wood (if needed). Place doors and drawers on saw horses/wood and space out accordingly.
- Patch up any spots with wood filler that need it. Sand when dry.
- Wipe down furniture piece with a damp cloth to remove any dust/dirt.
- Dilute primer accordingly. You may need to play with this depending on your spray gun and paint being used.
- Spray or roll/paint 1-2 coats of primer on the furniture piece and drawers & doors.
- Spray or roll/paint 1-2 coats of final paint colour on the furniture piece and drawers & doors.
- When completely dry, reattach cabinet hardware and reassemble piece of furniture.
- Move piece of furniture to desired location.
- Sit back, admire your newly up cycled furniture and pour yourself a big old cup of tea/water/wine/beer/whiskey/coffee and admire what you’ve accomplished!
