Spit and Planks! 80’s Buffet Turned Coastal Console!

12 Materials
$20
4 Hours
Easy
I know you have all seen those old 80’s side boards/buffets... I bought a table and chairs along with one of these beauties (a huge extension table, see my Feather finish dining table project:
) for about $60.00 on Craigslist!
the “buffet”, had good bones. But after doing the table and chairs, it just looked dated and sad. The top had a big granite slab, which back in the day, was all the rage.
Dining set for &60.00!
When we purchased our house, it had lovely mirrored 80’s dining room walls and the rest of the house was painted a lovely shade of... yellow!
As I started making the updates, (removed walls to open up the space, painted the walls, took down popcorn ceiling, etc) although the house was looking better, it made my dated furniture stand out even more. We purchased a great big TV, to mount in the corner of the living room, but had nothing to hold (or hide) all of the cable boxes, etc. We live on the water in south Florida and knew we wanted a real coastal feel. So when I did our dining chairs, I chose coastal colors. When I made my cornices ( ) I used this amazing coastal looking fabric. I knew the colors I wanted to use to refinish what would be my new piece to go under the TV!
Looks nice, but needed some help!
Although the granite top was awesome, it definitely didn’t match the “coastal“ look I wanted to create and I remembered how much I loved working with the rough cedar, from my patio Bar project: . Cedar was cheap at home depot and it had the rough cedar had that old plank look already.
Removed glass from doors
First I removed the glass panels. I used a combination of all of my leftover paint for the base, playing around with them until I was happy with the colors. I did a google search for coastal color pallets and saved the photos.
Played around with base colors
I looked up the tecniques for making “chippy paint” because I wanted the finished piece to look like it spend decades on a ship! I used sandpaper, plaster of Paris to make the paint thick and layered on different colors until I was satisfied. The great thing about this technique is that you truly can’t mess this up!! If you don’t like a color, just paint on top! The more layers showing through, the more aged and authentic the look becomes!
First coat
Painted drawers
after looking at my favorite photos, I chose to paint the drawers light to dark, from the top down
Unicorn spit on panels, polyurethane on top!
I splattered my “Unicorn Spit” paint on the glas panels. This was so cool- I painted the back sides of the glass, so the finished side was just the glass and wouldn’t be exposed to hands and wouldn’t chip off. Unicorn Spit leaves a chalky finish when dry. Magic happens once you apply polyurethane! It leaves a glossy, very modern, wet-look, super shiny finish! My goal was to combine modern with coastal and the Unicorn Spit was absolutely perfect!
1x3 cedar planks
I purchased the planks/boards from Lowes. I didn’t have to make a single cut. The size was perfect! I was being lazy and instead of removing the granite top, I chose to glue the boards directly on top. This ended up working out perfectly! I didn’t even have to nail them in place: the granite worked great because it gave the boards a template to stay perfectly flat and straight. I used clamps, buckets, paint cans, literally anything I could find to add weight and hold them in place, while they dried!
Hand made rope handles
Drawer pulls can be expensive and I don’t like spending money! Whenever I am in Marshall’s, TJ Maxx, etc and find something on clearance, even if I have no need at that Time, I know there will likely be a future project... so if something is cheap... I usually buy it. I bought these drawer pulls years ago- I can think of at least five times that my husband “suggested” they go out to the trash... but I resisted each time. I’m glad I did! I think I paid like .50 for them, as they were missing pieces. All I needed were the screws that when through the drawer, along with the little decorative squares on the ends. I think they were silver. I used some “rub and buff” in antique gold and painted them. About a year ago, I was throwing away a cat tower that “cat” (my kitty’s name) had torn to shreds. It was wrapped in rope.. so before taking the old tower to the trash, I unwound the rope and stashed it away for a rainy day. I twisted and turned, knotted the sides and pushed the screws through the drawers. It was PERFECT!
Added stain to rope: aged look
The rope looked way too “new”, so I used stain and the same “rub and buff” on the rope, that I used on the ornamental pieces, to age my new pulls.
Stained planks
I stained the planks.
I added a clear wax on top. I wanted this to have an aged look- so new and shiny wasn’t going to cut it! The wax was perfect.
Glass panels back in
I added the glass panels back in. I applied the wax to the rest of the console.
I actually used a few different wax colors- I found them at walmart in the craft section. It was very inexpensive!! I used antiquing wax, white wax, a teal color, patina wax... this really pulled the entire thing together nicely!
Beautiful Coastal Console table!
Now I have the perfect Spot for all of the “TV stuff”! Lots of drawers and storage- plus room that you can’t see, behind the console. I put a little table behind it, where I placed all of the electronic boxes (cable, internet, PlayStation, etc)
What do you think?
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Jessica Hoffman
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  3 questions
  • Lyn Lyn on Apr 07, 2018

    This looks fantastic! Instead of having a table behind the console for your cable, playstation etc, have you thought of putting them in the console on a shelf behind the glass doors?, or you could put them in a drawer. All you would need to do is drill some holes in the back of the console to poke them through, I have done this to a previous piece of furniture that I was using. The console will sit flush to the wall and look a lot neater.

  • Zetta Wasser Zetta Wasser on Apr 12, 2018

    I have never used that wax paint is it like an ackirlic paint

  • Carol Marszalek Carol Marszalek on Apr 14, 2018

    It’s really lovely. Only one question, why glue down the top to the granite? Could you have put a border around it and just laid it on top? It would give you options down the road if you changed decor. Just a thought.... but love the finished project.

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