Hi guys! It’s been over two weeks since I’ve popped in here, but we’ve literally spent every minute the past two weeks getting our house ready for the market. Thankfully Chris had two weeks off before starting his new job, so the two of us, a contractor, and a dumpster kicked some serious butt. (That might become the title of my memoir one day.) On top of that, I am still a vendor at Sweet Clover until the end of this month, and along with Katie and Jen, I styled the Sweet Clover cottage for our Holiday Open House happening this weekend. As you can see, I’ve been busy! Today I wanted to share with you a new furniture makeover: black & wood midcentury sideboard. I finished this piece with the cottage at Sweet Clover in mind and you will see why at the end of this post. First let’s talk about this beauty! (This post does contain some affiliate links.)
Before we go on, let me also take a moment to thank Katie of Little House of Four for taking stunning photos in the cottage and allowing me to use them… because with life being so crazy I completely forgot to take after photos of this piece before I hauled it over.
I found this piece a couple months ago at one of my favorite local thrift shops and it happened to be 50% off furniture that day. It was better than Christmas! When I bought it, it was really beaten up, the finish was worn, and the veneer had a lot of damage along the back of the sides. However, it had beautiful original hardware, was solidly made and the structure was sound, and it featured a beautiful leaf inlaid design on the door facade.
I knew that I wanted to preserve that design on the door, but the body needed paint because of the veneer damage. To repair the damage, I used my favorite wood filler (linking all of the products I used at the bottom of this post for you)
When I use wood filler, I always over fill, knowing that I can then sand smooth. I also apply it before I sand the piece over all so that I can just sand the filler and the piece at the same time.
Once the wood filler was dry and ready to sand, I used my orbital sander to lightly sand the finish and smooth out the filler. As you can see below, I realized I needed to show you what it looked like before I painted that side. 😉 So yes, that’s wet paint on the top surface.
In my sanding process, I removed the door and sanded it down to bare wood. I set that piece aside while I got to work sanding then painting the rest of the piece. I applied three coats of General Finishes Lamp Black (my absolutely favorite black for furniture). I always use a purdy brush to apply paint because I love the smooth finish I achieve between the brush and paint quality.
Once the entire piece was painted, I applied a finishing wax, allowed that to dry, then buffed it. I reattached the door so that I could decide what finish I would use on it.
I thought about just using a tung oil to finish it and keeping it sort of bare looking, but decided it was a little too stark. I settled on a dark walnut gel stain and applied just one coat for a nice warm finish. Once the stain dried, I applied a couple coats of wipe-on poly which goes beautifully over stain and is easy to apply with a clean rag.
This piece fir perfectly into our Scandinavian Christmas cottage at Sweet Clover which Katie, Jen, and I styled together in green, black, white, wood, and silver. We’re so proud of how it turned out and I wanted to share that with you today as well. Again, thanks to Katie for these gorgeous photographs.
I found this aluminum tree this summer and have been waiting to bring it in. It’s the real vintage deal! We decorated it with vintage green glass balls.
How fun is this vintage chess set I found? I’ve had it in my space before and it hasn’t sold but I just love the quirky pieces.
Jen brought in these amazing peacock chairs… Swoon! And check out the vintage macrame light she found! She also refinished that gorgeous coffee table.
I absolutely love this Christmas color palette and plan to recreate it in my own home one day. With the move this year, we’re pretty much getting a tree and calling it a day. 😉 There’s always next year in the new place!
If you are local to Frederick, MD, head on out to Sweet Clover this weekend for our Holiday Open House where you’re sure to be inspired by all of the beautiful decorations and holiday music!
Sweet Clover Barn
4051 Stanford Ct, Frederick, MD 21703
Thursday 9-5, Friday 9-5, Saturday 9-5, Sunday 11-4
As promised, here are the products I used to recreate the midcentury sideboard:
