I’m excited to show you a solid wood furniture find. Take a look at this thrifted buffet furniture flip before and after. 

Thrifted Buffet Furniture Flip Before and After

You know you’ve been thrifting for a long time when you can’t remember where you got a large piece of furniture. I guess when such a large portion of your furniture has been found in thrift stores or on Facebook marketplace that’s bound to happen.

You may remember this buffet table. It sits at the center of our home and houses all kinds of good stuff. Mostly games, candle stick holders, and lots of old DVDs and even CDs. We homeschool and I was a music major so I tend to hang onto these things. It’s for the kids I tell myself. 

Here are the steps I’ve taken in designing a home filled with quality furniture while spending only a fraction of the cost of new.

Find Your Furniture Deal!

If you’re out thrift shopping and find a sturdy, good looking and quality piece of furniture, but it has some wear and tear, please don’t pass it up!

This exact scenario happened to me a few months ago.

I had been looking for a piece of furniture with a traditional shape and great storage.

At the time I didn’t have space in my days to invest into giving it a makeover, but I still snapped it up. I knew eventually I’d have the time to bring it back to life, so I brought it home.

 

Envision Your Transformation

I liked the dark wood of our buffet, but it had been scratched and worn in several places.   Other than that this buffet was perfect for our needs and I loved the style.

After a few months of living with it as is, I decided that instead of staining the scratches I would give it a whitewash.

The hope was it wouldn’t be too time consuming and it really wasn’t. Although the idea of what is time consuming is relative. Wink, wink.

 

Experiment and Have Fun

In order to get the uneven shade I was looking for I needed to sand it well and remove the varnish so the thinned paint could adhere to the wood.

Sanding was the most time consuming part of this project and I had my sons help me out. Thank goodness they actually like sanding. (Update: The boys don’t like sanding anymore.) 

Put In the Work

After it was sanded I simply took white paint and watered it down a bit then used a rag to wipe it onto the wood.

In a few places I used a sponge brush and in others a bristle brush. I wanted the wood to show through in as many places as possible and the whole piece to have rustic look and feel.

After a few layers were allowed to dry I was happy with the result.

Celebrate Your Accomplishment!

The buffet was purchased for $40 and I used left over white paint to give it a whole new look!

Giving an old, neglected piece of furniture a make over with paint and elbow grease is an affordable way to bring character to your space and add storage.

What do you think? Is this something you might try?

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