New Life for a Neglected Sideboard

I found this sideboard on craigslist awhile ago. It was dirty, covered in cobwebs, missing some veneer, and showing years of neglect. But it was sturdy and a good price, so I decided to see if I could breathe new life into it.

The first thing I did was wipe it inside and out with white vinegar and leave it outside for awhile in hopes that the musty smell would mitigate. Most of the smell did dissipate over time and the rest was covered by paint.

After it aired out, I started prepping the wood to paint it. The top was in pretty rough shape: water stains, stuck on paper, water damaged (rippled) veneer, and chipping veneer. Since it was too far gone to stain (what I really would have liked to do), I sanded it down.

The front surfaces were missing strips of veneer in spots. I thought about using edge banding to build up those spots, but decided to just paint over it all and see if turned out ok. Yes, slightly lazy of me, but I wasn't sure that I could get the edge banding to really blend in and I'm short enough on free time that I didn't want to waste time scraping it off and redoing it if it didn't work.

I did like the pattern of the wood grain on the doors and drawers, but the wood just wasn't in good enough shape to leave unpainted.

Before lightly sanding all over, I removed the handles and knobs. I cleaned and painted the hardware with ORB spray paint.

After sanding, I painted a coat of light gray primer, followed by a coat of Old Violet Annie Sloan chalk paint.

after the primer coat

Then we hauled it upstairs because Mr M was going out of town for work and I wanted to finish it while he was gone. I got busy doing other projects and forgot about it until after we got back from Boston. Because of the delay I ended up doing things a little differently than I had originally planned. I think I wanted to lightly sand it before I waxed it, but I didn't remember about that until I had put most of the first layer of wax on. Oh well. I still like how it turned out :)

Before I started waxing it though, I did remember to do one of the things I'd thought of. I like how the lines in the original finish were darker than the rest of the wood, so I watered down some black paint and painted the lines and some of the edges, wiping off the extra as I went. It added some dimension to the finish, but it was still missing something, so I finished off with two coats of Minwax dark paste wax. The dark wax darkened the paint quite a bit and left a weathered, old appearance, which I quite like.

Most of the chipped veneer is no longer very noticeable, and what you do see right off blends in with the aged appearance of the finish- adding, rather than detracting.

The Old Violet is kind of a blue/purple/gray color. The dark wax toned down the purple and now it seems more blue-gray with slight brown tones from the wax. I like the color both ways, so next time I use the Old Violet paint I will probably use the clear paste wax on top so the color doesn't change so much.

I thought about using this in the bathroom instead of the current boring vanity, but then when we eventually move, we'd have to leave it there. I like this piece enough that I'm not sure I'm willing to do that :)

We put the sideboard along the wall where the bench used to be. I like the bench, but it just isn't as useful as I had hoped it would be, and tended to attract piles of stuff. I put the changing pad on it, but it was awkwardly short for me and impossibly short for Mr M. So we moved the bench into the kids' room, where it's having a much more useful life as a window seat.

Here it is in our room, ready to have some clothes moved into it and the changing pad put on top. We've been moving furniture between our room and the kids' room and once I'm sure I like the arrangement (and get some curtains hung finally), I'll be able to show some pictures that show more of the room.

And here's a final before and after shot. I love how it turned out and I'm glad I was able to look past the neglected exterior and help it shine again.