whoopsy, i can't believe it's been almost two weeks since my last post. i surely didn't mean for that to happen. the last week kind of slipped past me in a frenzy of spring cleaning and general gettin-'stuff-done-ness. my husband took the week off to get started on our backyard renovation and it somehow made the days go by extra quickly having another adult around, even if he was outside 90% of the daylight hours. it kind of spurred me on to clean and show him just how hard i really work around here, even though he is far too clever to actually ever ask me that question... so i did a massive playroom and living room tidy, culling toys to send to the op shop, even fishing all the bits out from under the sofas. and as i dusted the top our of vintage sideboard i realised that i'd never shown my diy handiwork here, even though the fact that i took before photos (almost a year ago now) means i obviously planned too. so behold, here is the $40 sideboard that i picked up at st vinnies's after giving up on stalking danish inspired ones on ebay:
it had some good points - nice and long with a cute glass display area, timber legs and sides but the top and doors were a fairly hideous fake wood laminate. i bought some magical primer at masters (can't remember the name of it but one of the salespeople there directed me to it) that allows you to paint laminate with any old paint you want. and we have plenty of paint kicking around here from renovating, especially a lot of rather lovely pale blue that was intended for the outside of our house (before we changed our mind after one coat and went with a warm, light grey). i gave all the laminate surfaces a really light sand by hand, applied one coat of primer and then two (or maybe three) coats of the house paint, pale blue for the doors and dark grey for the top, using a roller so the surface stayed pretty smooth. my husband then applied a clear matte top coat so it would be easy to keep clean and, after removing the contact paper that was roughly applied, gave the display area a couple of coats of an offwhite house paint. oh and we decided to leave the handles off because it looked so nice and clean. it makes the bottom drawers a bit of a pain to open but they're only full of dvds anyway and who watches those anymore??
I love it! What a fabulous job. It really does look wonderful, Leslie. Great that you had the opportunity for a big clean-out too - so cathartic, isn't it? Hope you have a relaxing weekend :) Kx
ReplyDeletePretty! It looks really fresh and lovely. I have been on a furniture painting kick lately but didn't know you could paint laminate so easily... this is maybe a bad thing, it might lead to me picking up even more stray furniture on gumtree. At the moment our spare room looks like a Vinnies!
ReplyDeleteGenius! I've used that tile/laminate stuff before (on our whole bathroom, it was a 3-day nightmare but the results are good!). Anyway what a great way to update a laminate sideboard, which I agree are so ubiquitous but so much cheaper than their teak cousins :)
ReplyDeleteAnd love the sneaky balloon...
My mother had one similar to this but had a fold down bar and drawers. She had so much of this stuff but gt rid of it a couple of years ago when renovating. I live interstate so didn't know and wasn't able to take the pieces home (sure my hsband is happy about that.
ReplyDeletePS your ere featured on etsy's front page. I took a screen capture if you want to see.
thanks a ton, ladies! and thank you, rosie, for the etsy front page tip! i managed to get over there and grab a screen capture, too : )
ReplyDeleteand yes, tess, love that you picked up on the balloon ; ) cords are the bane of my decorating existence!
Great work! The painted surfaces have allowed the wood trims to stand out and become a feature! Very impressed! :)
ReplyDeleteI just inherited a laminate sewing table that I want to paint so this is perfect timing! Hopefully home depot has your magic primer.
ReplyDeleteGreat work, really looks nice after the paint job.
ReplyDeleteHanna
love.
ReplyDeleteYour DIY projects never fail to amaze me. This one is quite easy to make that I think I wouldn't need the help of my commercial painters in Perth. Thanks for the tips! By the way your wall looks awesome now.
ReplyDeleteThis is just the inspiration I need, thank you!
ReplyDeleteI too got bored of stalking the "real" retro sideboards on ebay and I just snared myself a laminate sideboard on gumtree today for nothing! And mine looks remarkably similar to yours, except that I do not have the bottom drawers.
I have plans aplenty for my sideboard renovation and with your tips it will be even easier!
I love it's simple style yet very neat in eyes. In my paint job, I only trust painters in Perth. I know how efficient and organized they work.
ReplyDeleteI love the painting done in this furniture. I'm just not quite sure if this could work on the basement systems since I plan to remodel it. I'm thinking of a more cabin-like wooden vibe. The furniture can actually make for a great novelty piece.
ReplyDeleteI just had my office space fort lauderdale this month and I still don't have any idea on what concept should I be putting on it. This idea is kinda like it. I should suggest this. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI also have that kind of cabinet on my storage unit perth. Most of the things I put in there are things that can be modified to look even better.
ReplyDeleteI'll be considering how my living room and my little garden will look like in buying a condo, this one will be fine for me. As long as I could put on a big plasma screen on the living and hold a barbecue party in my backyard it will be enough for me. Those two were just some of the most important part of a house for me basically because it brings me, my family and friends together.
ReplyDeleteI'm using some of my old overstock office furniture in my house, I'm just re-decorating some of them. Like my filing cabinet, I'm using it as a side drawer near my television, in which I'm stacking my collection of DVDs and CDs.
ReplyDelete