Bespoke Baby Jacobean Buffet
Sometimes I sound like a broken record when I write my blog posts. "I bought this from a fellow merchant at Morgantown Market..." I've sat here at the computer trying to think of another way to start this post, but I've got nothing. But is that a bad thing? The more I thought about it, the more I realized that the reason why most of my pieces have been purchased from Morgantown Market is because it has a group of incredible vendors that sell incredible pieces at incredible prices. What's a furniture girl to do?
So...here we go!
This baby Jacobean buffet was purchased from - you guess it - a fellow merchant at Morgantown Market!
It was priced reasonably, and I'm a sucker for anything Jacobean. I painted a larger buffet a few months ago that went to Painted Table Designs in Elverson. It didn't last long!
It started out like this:
And it finished like this - all chippy and lovely:
I thought about painting the baby buffet the same way, but I wasn't 100% sure I wanted it to be chippy. It sat for a bit until I knew what I wanted to do. Now for those of you who are cringing at the thought of me painting the buffet, let me encourage you that I gave it enough time to be sold as-is. The veneer on the top was beginning to bubble and separate and the front was a bit crackled. It was wobbly and needed some structural work. Plus, the top drawer was jammed. If you're still cringing at the thought of me painting it, then all I can offer you is a hug and the advice to stop scrolling.
The finish on the buffet was very shiny and glossy. Normally I would scuff a surface like this, but because it had so many details, sanding wasn't an option. Instead, I painted a base layer of Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint in Graphite.
I thought this color was pretty and I saw it potentially being white waxed and looking something like this:
Photo via Pinterest
As I kept working, I changed my mind. The Graphite was pretty but a bit too dark. I decided to go in a different direction, and mixed about 4 different colors from Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint to make my own bespoke blend. What's nice about this switch is that the Chalk Paint provided a surface that Milk Paint could stick to. It's another option I can put in my books if I want to paint a shiny and glossy surface with Milk Paint.
Now normally I'm all about sharing my color mixtures, but I'm going to keep this one to myself this time.
It's a little bit of this and that, resulting is a pretty smokey blue/gray. It's not quite the same color as Bergere, but it's in the same family.
I let Milk Paint do its thing and it chipped in random places, adding to the charm of the piece. I used 150 grit sandpaper on the edges and the raised parts to draw the eye in.
The original hardware was mis-matched. If you look at the pulls on the top and bottom, they weren't the same. Plus, the top two were painted red.
A search on Etsy for "antique ring pulls" yielded these pretty options.
Three of them had a lovely antiqued brass patina, but there was an oddball that was dark black, so I spray painted them with a little bit of this and that to get this color:
Depending on the light, they look gold, brass, bronze, and sometimes black. I like how you can't quite put your finger on their color.
As I was distressing, I went back and forth about applying Antiquing Wax to this piece. Should I put it in the crevices? All over? Just in the corners? This piece was definitely a back-and-forth experience. I didn't have a clear vision as to where I wanted it to go, so I stayed flexible and made decisions on the fly. It was quite the experience because I haven't gone through a process like that in a while. My last handful of project were relatively straight forward, so it was kind of nice to trust the products and not be entirely sure which direction it was going to go.
I decided to apply Hemp Oil and forgo the wax for another day. I really liked the piece the way it was. No need to guild a lily.
The drawers are extra deep and I cleaned them out using Murphy's Wood Oil Soap. That's my new favorite trick for getting them to smell great and have a fresh lease on life.
Everywhere you look, there are beautiful details on this piece. You can't help but stare at it.
Isn't it beautiful? I especially like how my bespoke color plays with the bright yellows, grays, and reds of the artificial flowers I placed on top.
The pretty cream and tan vases are from Painted Table Designs if you'd like to pick up some for yourself! This piece also gave me a chance to use my antique mirror. I've been itching to use it for staging, and this buffet was the perfect opportunity. Because the buffet has long legs and a squat top, the mirror adds height and balances out the vases.
This piece has endless possible uses. It could be a dresser, entranceway table, server for a dining room, console table for a television, coffee bar, etc. It's available for $310 + tax if you're interested. Contact me for local pickup and/or delivery options.
