Birds & Roses Buffet/Dresser

I'm really busy right now but wanted to stop and share pictures of the before and after of a buffet/dresser I just finished.  I'm really torn about selling this one I just love it!


Here's the before:

It is a solid, good quality piece of furniture but so not my style.  Here's the after:

The paint color just won't come through with this camera sorry but it is painted with ASCP "Versailles" and it is just divine! It's a soft lemony green and the birds are stencils I made from images I got at The Graphics Fairy. They are painted with burnt umber acrylic paint.


I'm updating this blog to give you the details on how I painted this piece.  

• First I stripped the top
• I then applied a wood conditioner & waited 30 minutes for it to dry
• Next I took a lace curtain I found at a thrift shop and by laying it on the top of the buffet decided what portion of the curtain I wanted to use. I cut that portion our and tapped it to the top of the buffet with painters tape barely catching the edges of the lace.

• Next I spray painted the top with a Rust-oleum satin paint in a burnt umber shade. I love this color and use it a lot.  Here is how it looked after I sprayed it.  You need to be sure you spray it in an even coat and your lace needs to be a sturdy weight a light weight lace won't work.

• After it had thoroughly dried I applied 2 coats of water-based satin poly to protect it but in doing so found that the Rust-oleum smeared a bit but not enough to hurt anything.  So you may want to chose another paint if you are going to poly afterwards.
• I then painted the entire buffet in "Versailles" as I mentioned above.
• I wanted to carry the bird theme onto the body of the piece so I went to "The Graphics Fairy" and chose a flying bird image and a canary standing on a limb.  After printing them on card stock I used an Exacto knife to cut them out making stencils.
• I applied the flying bird stencil to the door and the canary on one of the drawers.

• When the stencils were dry I applied a coat of ASCP clear soft wax allowing it to dry and then distressed in areas that would normally see wear then added another coat of wax.

Now here is another view of the finished piece. You can see the color better in this one.

My favorite part is the top.

Now I have to give credit to Rosemary @Villabarnes who shared the idea of spraying lace on her blog.  I had thought of using lace before but had tried doing it like a stencil with a brush & when it didn't work just gave up.  Thanks Rosemary. 


Okay get out your paint & give it a go. It's back to work for me.


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