Vintage Dresser turned Island Style Buffet

:::peeks out from hibernation:::

 You guys still out there?  Or have I lost you all?

Sorry for the (over a) month long silence.  I needed a little time to detox from the holidays and basically just get my stuff together.  But now I'm back.  Back again.  Lizzie's back.  Tell a friend...

Remember once upon a time, when JEGs and I scored our original buffet from Craigslist, stained it blue and put it in the great room of our apartment?  

holy overkill on the styling.  Geebus.

I loved that buffet and it held a special place in my heart since it was the first piece of furniture that JEGs and I revamped together.  Unfortunately, when we moved into the house, it's small size was really not filling the space in the kitchen, and with the onslaught of baby paraphernalia, we needed more storage.  

I had been casually looking around Craigslist and peeking at yard sales, but I wasn't finding anything I wanted.  One day I was meandering around our local thrift shop, Impact! (it's very exciting) and I stumbled upon this:

A seventy-three inch dresser with gorgeous lines, fun rattan doors and tons of storage. 

The problem?  They were asking $175, and that was not within my budget. 

I found the dresser on a Tuesday.  That following Friday the store was having a sale of 25% off all furniture, so I took a gamble and hoped it would be there three days later.  

At 9:59 am on Friday I was standing in front of the store, waiting for the doors to open.  When they did, I rushed back and found it was still there!

After the discount and tax, the price came down to $139.13.  I could do better.

Since it was a dresser, it came with a mirror (you can kind of see it peeking out of the picture above). The following day I advertised it on Craigslist for $15, and it was gone later that afternoon.  I posted the original blue buffet on my Facebook page, and our friends Tim and Lisa snatched it up for $60.  

Taking in account the sale of the buffet and mirror, the final price of this dresser-turned-buffet was now $64.13.

HOW YOU LIKE ME NOW???

JEGs and I sanded it down and gave it a couple coats of crisp white paint and voila! 

I have such a crush on this piece now.  Something about it looks very "island" to me.  Like you would find it in your  hotel room on the beaches of Bermuda.

..of course, I've never been to Bermuda.  I'm more a Jersey shore kind of girl (without the GTL).

We replaced the original hardware on the drawers.  I had picked out brushed nickel but JEGs mentioned going with a flat black.  It was a hard sell, but once  we put the black on, I knew it was the right choice.  The brushed nickel felt too modern for the piece and really didn't fit our style.

The knobs on the doors are a different story.  I don't know if you can tell, but the original knobs had a very dated diamond shaped back plate that I hated.    The problem was, we couldn't get the knobs to sit flush with the door without them.  JEGs took the original back plates and cut off the points with a hack saw.  Then he used a bench grinder to get them into a more modern oval shape.  The original shape had a inner bevel we liked, so JEGs hand filed so it continued around the new shape. 

 He used some fine sand paper and jewelers stone to smooth it down, hit them with some flat black spray paint we already had and added the new knobs. 

The top had an indentation that went all the way around.  We liked the detail so we played it up by painting it black

and by "painting" I mean "coloring it with a Sharpie".    Don't judge, it worked.

The blue cabinet was good to us in the apartment, but a bigger space means bigger furniture.  I have put everything I needed in this new piece and I still have room to grow.

We already had the white paint on hand, and even though I don't have the receipts anymore, I don't think the hardware cost us over $10.

What do you think?  Seventy-five dollars well spent?  I think so.  

Always&Forever,

  ME