Repurposed Buffet Free Furniture

That’s right.  A Rolling Vintage Buffet I found for Free.

The Free Buffet Before

Of course, it didn’t look like this Vintage Buffet when I picked it up off the curb.  It looked more like this:

How I Upcycled an Old Free Buffet

Once I got around to repurposing it, inspiration set in.  It needed a removable top.  It needed Vintage Casters.  It needed Upcycled Wood and Old Fence Boards, it need Debi’s Design Diary DIY Paint.  It needed…..a lot of work!!!!!

Sometimes ideas spring out of my head fully formed and I know exactly how I am going to upcycle and repurpose my junk.  This time, it was a painful, long, exhausting delivery.  Full of grunts, sweat, a bit of blood, and maybe a few tears.

You know that saying, “measure twice cut once”?  All this time I thought it was measure sort of once, then cut, eyeball, measure, cut again, eyeball, assemble, take apart.  Glue, tear down, and start over.  That’s pretty much how it went with this piece.  I knew I wanted a removable top.  I just could not seem to get the measurements right to come up with something that would keep the top from sliding around.

My Favorite Tools to Upcycle an Old Buffet

I love my Ryobi Cordless Drill, I gave it a major workout on this Vintage Buffet and I didn’t have to change the battery even once.

I also needed to secure this drawer front to the body of the piece.  The drawer was long gone by the time I got it.  First I secured the drawer front to the inside of the piece.  Then I decided to build a shelf to go where the drawer was.  Take the drawer front out again, and insert the shelf.

I decided the wood on the bottom was so paper thin, I needed to replace it.  And wouldn’t it look nice if I covered it with the Toille Contact Paper I used everywhere else?  So guess what?  I took out the shelf I made, took out the drawer front again and worked on the bottom.  Then put back the shelf.

Sigh.

I also decided it would be GREAT to have one of those cute Farmhouse looking Storage Boxes on the shelf I built, and you would see it when you took the Reclaimed Wood Top Off.  I used my Ryobi Chop Saw to cut down the Reclaimed Fence Boards.

I love this chop saw, it is a major workhorse.  I have used it for hours at a time and it just keeps going. The angles are easy to adjust for cutting mitered edges too.

To secure them together, I love having a cordless nail gun.  I actually have 2.  One is more of a Contractor Grade, and one is a little more light-duty.  I got the light-duty one because I found that the force of the bigger one sometimes was too much and split the wood.  If you don’t have a cordless Nail Gun.  I highly recommend it.  So easy to pull out when you want to do a quick project.

http://amzn.to/2mzSGfY

Finishing up the Old Free Buffet

Once I had all the repairs completed, I painted the entire piece with DIY Paint in Mint Chip.  Just one coat because I wanted to heavily distress it, in keeping with the very rustic look of this piece.

Once the paint was dry, I used a damp rag to really distress it, followed by light sand with 320 grit sandpaper to really smooth it out. For the top, I used my signature finish.  One coat of DIY Paint Big Top Brush on Finish followed with one coat of DIY Paint Clear Wax. You can see more about that finish in this post too!

I hope I inspired you to see your old furniture in a new way and to not pass up that free furniture you might see on the side of the road, who knows, you might find an old Buffet for Free!