Before & After: Rescuing a Battered Buffet
When Susan first saw this battered buffet, it was anything but love at first sight. Water stains, peeling veneer, and missing drawer pulls — this buffet had them all. Thankfully, it also had wonderful lines, solid construction, and some beautiful carved legs peeping through the grime and abuse. With a gritty determination, Susan set out to restore this buffet to reflect its proud past.
After her attempts to remove some deep scratches in the veneer failed, she decided the veneer had to go — easier said than done! Susan’s buffet was made back in the days of quality construction, so the veneer on top was thick; so thick, in fact, that the ironing trick didn’t work and she had to break out a butane torch to soften the glue enough to make veneer removal possible. Thankfully the veneer on the drawer fronts was thin enough to basically sand off.
Once the veneer was gone, Susan was delighted by the wood grain revealed on the top and drawers of the buffet. She stained these portions in dark walnut before painting the base of the unit in Annie Sloan’s Coco. She ordered replacement drawer pulls online to complete the makeover of her formerly battered (and now beautiful) buffet.
(Images: Susan/Uniquely Yours…Or Mine!)