Refinishing a Dining Room Buffet

As I mentioned in my last post about the floating shelves, when we purchased our home, we planned to place a buffet with a hutch in the alcove space, but nothing seemed to be right with the space.  When I found this piece on FB Marketplace for only $50, I knew this was going to be the way to go, then add the floating shelves above it!

I knew when I saw the piece that I could make it match our dining room table, so I started by sanding down the top to remove the clear coat that was on it.  Once I had the top down to the actual bare wood, I wiped it down well, and then stained the top using the Walnut stain I had used on the dining room table, then, 2 coats of the clear polyurethane I had left from the table as well.

Next, I took off the doors and removed the drawers, then removed all the old hardware.  We did purchase new knobs and hinges, to update the piece to match what we had used in the kitchen and planned to use in the living room (brushed nickel finish). 

For the front and sides, I knew I wanted to chalk paint and distress it slightly as I had done with the dining room table, so I ended up using 4 coats of white chalk paint, then sanding some for the distressed look, and then waxing fronts, sides, doors and drawer fronts.

Once everything was dry, the only thing left to do was to add the new hardware!  While part of me still wishes we could’ve done a large hutch, this space looks SO MUCH BETTER with the smaller buffet and the floating shelves!!  And, the overall project was pretty simple to do and only took a few days to complete!!  Check out the post on the custom floating shelves to see the entire alcove area!