Refurbished buffet

Here is a recent refinshing project I took on.  I found this buffet at the local thrift store.  It was half off and it spoke to me.  I could see a shadow of its former glory. I had no use for another buffet.  I planned to just sell it when I was done, but I needed to save this piece of furniture. My husband thought I was nuts when I brought it home, but he politely kept it to himself.

I loved the wood grain on the top, the carved details, the art deco handles.  However, as you can see it was in pretty rough shape.  I figured I would have to paint the whole thing, but I was pretty sure I could give it a new life.  I started by peeling of the veneers on the drawers.  As you can see they were not good.  I did this by putting a damp flour sack towel on top of the veneer, and then putting a hot iron on top untill it got nice and steamy.  I then used a putty nive to peel it up.  This took some time and patience, but was pretty easy.  I kept a big bowel of water nearby to re-wet my towel.  Word of warning: this will stain your towel and leave a bunch of residue on your iron.  I have read that the iron will clean up nicely with some steel wool, but I frankly have been to lazy to try and I rarely use my iron for its intended purpose.  So use a towel you don't care about and an old iron if you have one.
Once the veneer was off I used a little wood filler to patch it up and sanded it down a bit. 

Even though I thought I would have to paint the whole thing, I went ahead and started sanding the top, just to see if it was salvageable, and boy am I glad that I did.  I started with 80 grit paper and worked my way up to 220 grit. It sanded down beautifully.  All the water marks and imperfections came out.  So I chose to stain it in a nice dark stain, Moorish Teak, from Zar. Since I already had the sander out, I gave the rest of it a quick sanding to rough it up.  I didn't worry getting it perfect since I was going to use my trusty Zinsser primer

Once the stain was dry, I started taping it off so I could paint the rest of it.  I used my  Zinsser primer so I wouldn't need to sand the entire piece.  Just make sure it is nice and clean.  I primed it and then gave it two coats of Vintage White in satin from Valspar.  I wanted to highlight the carved features of the piece, so I used asphaltum antiquing glaze from Valspar.  This was my first time using this glaze and I read a bunch about the best way to use it.  I opted to slap it on and wipe it off.  I was not a fan of this method on this piece.  It did highlight the carved details, but it also just made it look dirty to me.  It is a bit hard to tell in the picture below, but trust me.

So I repainted the whole piece again.  This time I sparingly used the glaze.  I put a little on the brush then brushed most of it off on a paper towel and then applied it to the detail areas and edges, using a cotton cloth to blend it all.  I was much happier with the results the second time around.

Finally I gave the whole thing, painted and stained surfaces, 3 coats of Varathane water based polyurethane and voila, an amazing piece.  It was hard parting with this piece, but it has already found a good home!