Vintage Buffet Cabinet

Here is a little project I just finished up for a client.  I found this piece soon after returning from our vacation in New Orleans, and since I was till in the French mood, well.... I guess you know which way I went with this one.

Here's what it looked like before:

   

Yep! No back.

 After "tightening" her up a bit, I replaced the backing and she was almost good as new!

I will warn you though that while working on this piece, I was having a serious "Game of Thrones" marathon happening on my iPad.  I have become absolutely/positively mildly obsessed with the show so I think I got a little carried away with the gold gilding because of it.  Let me just say I've been calling my youngest daughter "Little Dove" and well, we'll just leave it at that.

There were a few embellishments to be removed, repaired, and added along the way.  One being the one of the top of the cabinet which had pretty much disintegrated over time.  After hunting far and wide over great lands and kingdoms for just the right one, the darn thing showed up in my work shop right under my nose.  Since the "gods love to reward a fool", I easily found the other onlays for the side of the cabinet, and I ended up making the rose ones myself.

So after the cabinet and all the onlays and embellishments were painted (the inside was painted blue), I started the task at gold leafing.  Dear Lord, it literally looked like it rained gold on my table.  The stuff was everywhere!  I am not a neat gilder.

And may I remind you while leafing, do not get the "bright" idea of blowing your leafing out of your way while your adhering it to your piece.  

Mistake..... BIG mistake!  

Unless you like that gold dust look on your face, hair, eyebrows, eye lashes, etc.......

I also ended up gilding the hardware as well.  They were talking about gold so much on the "Game of Thrones" that I just couldn't stop myself.  

I'll just blame the Lannisters like everyone else is!

Once all the gilding was done, I gave the whole piece a "wash" in a lighter, complimentary color.  

Not before I had to deal with my washing machine getting stuck and continuously filling itself.  While I was giving the cabinet it's wash, my laundry room was being flooded with 4 inches of water while I worked!  I have never flown so fast to the work shed to grab my wet/vac in all my life.  Six bucket loads later, the carpet was still soaked.  I've had industrial fans going full blast for 24 hours+ that the carpet cleaners left after they vacuumed the floor.  The carpet is still wet.  It's beginning to smell now - but the cabinet has to get finished!

I alway find that through chaos, there is some form of transformation.

After that drama passed (for now), next came the decision of adding something different to the cabinet doors.  I found some wonderful vintage blue toilé to add to them which would add to the blue interior. After giving them a simple single stitch around the edges, 

I adhered them to the inside of the cabinet doors to give them a sweet surprise when you open them!

After I made a makeshift clothesline outside to hold all the completely drenched comforters stored neatly in their packages in the flooded laundry room, I finally took to the task of finally waxing and staining the cabinet.  

So, through Stark and Lannister battles, and chaotic floods in my own House, the vintage buffet cabinet finally completes its own transformation.

“Chaos isn’t a pit. Chaos is a ladder. 

Many who try to climb it fail and never get to try again. 

The fall breaks them. 

And some are given a chance to climb, but they refuse. 

They cling to the realm, or the gods, or love. 

Illusions. 

Only the ladder is real. 

The climb is all there is.” 

― George R.R. Martin

Linking With:

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