I’ve been working on a mini makeover on our dining room these last couple months, and I’m hoping to do the full before and after reveal soon, but one of the pieces that I wanted to add to the dining room was a buffet.  I originally had my big hutch in here…

but have since sold it at a Whimsy sale.  Although I liked it, it was a bit more country than I wanted to go.  It had served our house well, and the beautiful thing about whimsy is that I don’t usually loose money  on swapping out pieces of furniture.  I have gotten rid of the chalkboard wall and added board and batten, and my plan was to find a big “window” type mirror to put on the back wall to reflect some light since there is no windows back there.  I wanted the mirror to hang above a buffet, and after convincing myself I was just going to go to a furniture shop and buy a piece of furniture….I got sticker shock!  It’s been awhile!  I couldn’t find a decent buffet that I liked for under $800, and I just wasn’t willing to pay that!

So, I had been to an auction a few weeks prior and picked up this dandy for a whopping $10!

I wished I would have taken the picture of it before I took off the hardware, because the hardware was “special” :) to say the least!  It was huge and heavy brass that completely dated this piece.

The dresser had a real orange and honey color to it….

and although it needed a lot of work, I saw it had a LOT of potential!  It was the perfect size for my space, it was solid wood, and it had great character under all of that shellac:)

so out came the palm sander!  I hate completely sanding down furniture unless I have too, which usually means unless I want it for my house and am going to save $700+ dollars on a boughten piece.  And although the character is what sold me on this dresser, it was a beast to sand down.

not to mention super dusty!

I worked on it two different nights for about 2 hours each time, which doesn’t sound like much, but it’s just not a fun job.

Finally I was ready to bring it in the house and stain it.  It’s always trial and error when I’m trying to get a color I want, and for this piece I really wanted the gray, driftwood color that is so in right now.

I started by taking a styrofoam cup and filling it half full with American Accents “stone gray” paint.

You can find it at Menards by the spray paint:)

Then I filled the rest of the cup with water and mixed it together.  I ended up with a stain-like consistency that I could brush on and rub in with a rag, and also wipe off the excess.  I would paint on a whole drawer front and then wipe it off, but on the top I broke it into thirds and did one third at a time so the paint didn’t sit on there too long.  Here’s what it looked like when I finished that step.

Although I liked how it looked, it was a little too white washed effect for me.  I wanted a little more depth.  So then I messed around and tried the Minwax driftwood gray stain over top of it.  It really did nothing .  I want to tell you all the steps I did because so much of furniture reno is just trial and error.  After that didn’t work I took out my Minwax Dark Walnut stain..

I used a sponge brush to brush it on and then rubbed it off with a rag.  I was nervous at first that it would be too dark, but since I didn’t the half paint/half water treatment right before, it didn’t soak much up, and almost beaded a little.  The effect it gave was just perfect though.

Here was how it looked right after with my iphone pic

It ended up matching the new IKEA chairs I got just perfect!  I took my christmas home tour photos with it done but no hardware on it.

Since I only paid $10 for the dresser, I was able to buy the mirrors from Ballard Designs plus the dresser for the price I sold my hutch for.  The mirrors at the time were on their Bring Home Ballard special and were the best deal I could find for the size that they are!  We are still going to hang them, right now they are just leaning, but they are so heavy I have to pull the hubs in to help with that one!  I since ordered and put the hardware on my buffet as well.  Again, since I got the dresser for such a steal, I wanted to invest in nice hardware.  I really wanted the cup pulls to make it more cottage feel, but needed to different sizes that matched.  I had a hard time finding them but ended up with a great option at Pottery Barn.

these 3″ pulls were perfect for the top drawers.

and I loved these 9″ pulls for the big drawers.

Their hardware is free shipping which helped, and then I ended up buying two $10 off of $50 coupons on ebay for $3 and ordered my pulls in two separate orders so I saved $17.  All 9 pulls ended up costing me around $90, which still made this piece of furniture a steal for $100.

So, heres the before….

and after…

I just took out my red but left the greens, because here in the midwest spring is still a loooooooonnnnnngggg way off :)

And twinkle lights help with the dark nights:)

and that’s why I love those mirrors as well, they reflect so much light!

I love that the grain of the wood still shows through..

and that there is still variation in the color.

and this hardware was totally worth the cost.

I had to show you the end of this piece because the character is so pretty!  That’s why when you see a piece of furntiure at a garage sale, or estate sale, or craigslist, you have to look past the color/hardware/stain, and look at the character, lines, ridges.  Those are the parts of a piece of furniture that makes it so pretty at the end, whether staining or painting.

So there you have it, my $10 dresser makeover.