Bespoke Baby Jacobean Buffet

Dec 11, 2017 | Hemp Oil | 0 comments

Sometimes I sound like a broken record when I write my blog posts.  “I bought this from a fellow merchant at Morgantown Market…”  I’ve sat here at the computer trying to think of another way to start this post, but I’ve got nothing.  But is that a bad thing?  The more I thought about it, the more I realized that the reason why most of my pieces have been purchased from Morgantown Market is because it has a group of incredible vendors that sell incredible pieces at incredible prices.  What’s a furniture girl to do?

So…here we go!

This baby Jacobean buffet was purchased from – you guess it – a fellow merchant at Morgantown Market!

It was priced reasonably, and I’m a sucker for anything Jacobean.  I painted a larger buffet a few months ago that went to Painted Table Designs in Elverson.  It didn’t last long!

It started out like this:

And it finished like this – all chippy and lovely:

I thought about painting the baby buffet the same way, but I wasn’t 100% sure I wanted it to be chippy.  It sat for a bit until I knew what I wanted to do.  Now for those of you who are cringing at the thought of me painting the buffet, let me encourage you that I gave it enough time to be sold as-is.  The veneer on the top was beginning to bubble and separate and the front was a bit crackled.  It was wobbly and needed some structural work.  Plus, the top drawer was jammed.  If you’re still cringing at the thought of me painting it, then all I can offer you is a hug and the advice to stop scrolling.

The finish on the buffet was very shiny and glossy.  Normally I would scuff a surface like this, but because it had so many details, sanding wasn’t an option.  Instead, I painted a base layer of Annie Sloan’s Chalk Paint in Graphite.

I thought this color was pretty and I saw it potentially being white waxed and looking something like this

Photo via Pinterest

As I kept working, I changed my mind.  The Graphite was pretty but a bit too dark.  I decided to go in a different direction, and mixed about 4 different colors from Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint to make my own bespoke blend.  What’s nice about this switch is that the Chalk Paint provided a surface that Milk Paint could stick to.  It’s another option I can put in my books if I want to paint a shiny and glossy surface with Milk Paint. 

Now normally I’m all about sharing my color mixtures, but I’m going to keep this one to myself this time.

It’s a little bit of this and that, resulting is a pretty smokey blue/gray.  It’s not quite the same color as Bergere, but it’s in the same family.

I let Milk Paint do its thing and it chipped in random places, adding to the charm of the piece.  I used 150 grit sandpaper on the edges and the raised parts to draw the eye in.

The original hardware was mis-matched.  If you look at the pulls on the top and bottom, they weren’t the same.  Plus, the top two were painted red.

A search on Etsy for “antique ring pulls” yielded these pretty options.

Three of them had a lovely antiqued brass patina, but there was an oddball that was dark black, so I spray painted them with a little bit of this and that to get this color:

Depending on the light, they look gold, brass, bronze, and sometimes black.  I like how you can’t quite put your finger on their color.

As I was distressing, I went back and forth about applying Antiquing Wax to this piece.  Should I put it in the crevices?  All over?  Just in the corners?  This piece was definitely a back-and-forth experience.  I didn’t have a clear vision as to where I wanted it to go, so I stayed flexible and made decisions on the fly.  It was quite the experience because I haven’t gone through a process like that in a while.  My last handful of project were relatively straight forward, so it was kind of nice to trust the products and not be entirely sure which direction it was going to go.

I decided to apply Hemp Oil and forgo the wax for another day.  I really liked the piece the way it was.  No need to guild a lily.

The drawers are extra deep and I cleaned them out using Murphy’s Wood Oil Soap.  That’s my new favorite trick for getting them to smell great and have a fresh lease on life.

Everywhere you look, there are beautiful details on this piece.  You can’t help but stare at it. 

Isn’t it beautiful?  I especially like how my bespoke color plays with the bright yellows, grays, and reds of the artificial flowers I placed on top.

The pretty cream and tan vases are from Painted Table Designs if you’d like to pick up some for yourself!  This piece also gave me a chance to use my antique mirror.  I’ve been itching to use it for staging, and this buffet was the perfect opportunity.  Because the buffet has long legs and a squat top, the mirror adds height and balances out the vases. 

This piece has endless possible uses.  It could be a dresser, entranceway table, server for a dining room, console table for a television, coffee bar, etc.  It’s available for $310 + tax if you’re interested.  Contact me for local pickup and/or delivery options.

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I'm Jenn Baker - Milk Paint lover, photographer, blogger, and QVC Guest Host. Click below to learn more about me and my creative business.  LEARN MORE ABOUT JENN

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