ART IS BEAUTY: Custom Blue Empire Buffet Makeover

BEFORE beat up empire buffet dresser given a custom makeover with paint by general finishes

Welcome back my Beauties!

Do I have a doozie for you today!

I have been bustin my bootie with my daughters graduation and everything that goes with it and have not had a ton of time to work on projects.

But I decided to join a little blog hop with some friends of mine

over at Creative Vintage Darlings and that motivated me to get my rear in gear. (If you are a lover of all things vintage, come join us on our facebook page)

It just so happened that I picked up the gorgeous yet very damaged empire style buffet at a thrift shop and it inspired me to drop everything I was doing and makeover this piece.

I know from the first picture it looks like its in pretty good shape, but if you look closer you can see the major amount of damage to the veneer on the drawers.

I swear they used cement on this top drawer and no amount of sanding could budge that ridge they had built up.

I thought I would only be able to save the top since it was the only thing with no damage.

SANDING the top of the buffet dresser with random orbital sander woodwork refinishing diy

Also, as luck would have it, it wasn't attached to the top which made it a little easier to refinish.

The finish was pretty gone so I just used my Sander to take of the old finish pretty easily.

After going through my different grit sandpapers to smooth it out,

I wiped the whole thing with a tack cloth

to pick up any debris left from sanding.

Minwax wipe on poly

Since the grain was so beautiful I didn't even want to bother with staining it, and chose to just simply use a couple coats of Wipe on Poly to protect it!

sanded and poly walnut rosewood empire buffet drawer front refinished natural satin poly

After seeing the top of this piece saved I decided to take the one and only drawer without heavy damage and carefully do the same thing I did to the top.

I was THRILLED with how gorgeous the grain was on these two pieces.

As for the rest of the piece I decided on a custom combo of

General finishes Milk Paint

I used a 4-1 combo of

Coastal Blue and Persian Blue

I reattached the top and all the hardware and put this baby back together again.

rosewood and walnut custom painted empire buffet dresser makeover general finishes

Just look at how that grain POPS agains the blue paint.

Speaking of grain...any expert know the type.

I was convinced it was walnut but the top has me stumped.

rosewood or walnut custom finished empire buffet dresser makeover sanding staining finishing

I would almost swear it was rosewood from

the looks of the refinished top.
I have never seen the grain on walnut like this, but I can't tell if its just the mirror image that they used on the two halves or what?

If you know, let me know so I can finally know; ya know! :)

custom blue empire buffet makeover before and after general finishis coastal blue and persian blue

I am in love and can tell this is gonna be a hard piece to let go of.

My back is killing me from all the sanding and moving it around but I truly believe it was worth it to transform it from something that someone donated all broken apart,