Painting a Buffet

I love painting furniture!  We received this large buffet from my husband's grandparents' house.  We moved the black buffet that was in the entry hall to our bedroom (it fits perfectly) and decided to put the new (antique) buffet in the entry hall.  It is a lovely piece and is calling for a few coats of high-gloss black.

Here is the before:

Here is what I did:

• Removed all the hardware.
• Moved the furniture outside on top of a tarp.
• Lightly sanded the entire piece.  I don't put a lot of time or effort into this step.  Just a quick, light sand.

• Use a Swifer dust cloth to remove the dust that resulted from sanding.  Then, thoroughly wet a cloth, wring it out, then wipe down the entire piece.  Let it dry.
• Once dry you can begin painting!  As with spray painting, I find it better to do multiple, light layers.

Buffet after one light coat:

• Now, there are different looks you can achieve.  I painted a buffet with high gloss black earlier this year and put only ONE coat of high-gloss black on it.  The wood shone through a bit and it gave it a nice aged look.  With the buffet that I'm painting today, I'm going for a different look: glossy and modern.  So, I will paint multiple light coats and will not have any of the wood shine through.  Another thing you can do if you would like an antique look is to sand the corners and edges of the drawers and certain lines on the piece in order to highlight these ares.  See examples below:

Buffet that is in our bedroom with one coat of paint.  Note that where the light is hitting it, you can see the wood.

(Below) Our new, antique buffet painted in two coats of gloss black:

• As for the hardware:  I like the hardware that came with this new antique buffet; however, the hardware is dark as will be the buffet, so I was afraid that it wouldn't stand out.  I purchased Rub n' Buff in Antique Gold and rubbed it on the existing hardware.  Voila!  Good as new:

 

PAINTING TIPS:

• Paint multiple, light coats.
• Paint from the top down moving in sections that way you can catch any paint that runs.  Periodically look back over the section you just painted to see if any paint is running and correct it before it dries.