Turquoise Refinished Buffet

So...This week has been insane at Casa de Hannah. If you would have told me Saturday would be filled with painting, sanding, painting, and clean up I would have told you that you were insane.

BUT! With the kiddo gone and me awake at 7:30 I got the courage to re-do my $20 Garage Sale Buffet that I've had for 3 years now. It was a distressed yellow color, which in any other kitchen I've had has been perfect. But my new kitchen is white and brown with a yellow stove and yellow fridge. Too much yellow for this chick....so Turquoise it was!!

It was cool and rainy today so this got to be a porch project which turned out great. So this was the BEFORE pic. (pretty sweet buffet right?)

When I first thought about this project I asked if it had to be sanded...the answer was yes. I envisioned myself using a little square of sandpaper and giving up halfway through because it was too much work. BUT thanks to one of my great friends I was able to use their electric sander. POWER TOOLS + Hannah = A Possible ER Trip

Thankfully no Hannah was harmed in the making of this project. Haha.

So since I was up at the butt crack of dawn I took myself to ACE Hardware to get my supplies. Knowing I just needed paint and paint brushes...how hard could that trip be right? Wrong! ACE Hardware is not a place for chicks to go alone. There's too much nonsense in that place. 3/4 of which I have no clue what it does. So I spent about 15 minutes looking for paint colors. Who knew there would be SO many options for the turquoise I was looking for. I settled on "Go My Own Way" Turquoise. Love the color & the name! I also bought some gel stain which frankly scared me to use, but it turned out pretty good. Got some paint brushes and a sponge brush and headed home.

       

So I Sanded and Sanded and Sanded....

Finally it was all sanded down and a whiteish color. Which was pretty cool but not what I wanted. So then it was time for PAINT!!!

 I thought "Go Your Own Way" Was a quite fitting color :)

I then stained the parts of the cabinet I wanted. Sorry I didn't have pics of the application. I ended up getting stain ALL over my hands and was trying to work quickly. But the gel stain was interesting to work with and made a neat effect once I figured out how to deal with it. I used a variety of tools to work with all the detailing. A smaller paint brush, rubbing alcohol, Q-Tips, Make Up Sponges, and a dry wash cloth. I ended up doing a design and then painting back over it because I didn't like it. I also bought some new hardware for the drawers because the old ones were gold and outdated.

 Ta-Da! This is the finished project!! It was alot of fun and I felt pretty proud of myself for doing it all myself, minus having help to carry it outside.

Also found an odd way to get rid of a yucky problem. As I said before I got stain ALL over my hands and hot soapy water wasn't touching it. So I chicken pecked my way to Google and looked up how to get the stain off my hands. Vegetable Oil! It worked like a charm and all the stain came right off and out from under my fingernails. Then I used some dish soap to get the oil off. It also helped moisturize my hands after messing with the rubbing alcohol and stain.