Sideboard Buffet Makeover

You say to-may-to I say to-mah-to, you say po-tay-to I say po-tah-to…

Apt description of my confusion when attempting to identify what on earth the piece of furniture in my kitchen was called. Is it a sideboard, a buffet, a server, a console, or a credenza? What is the difference? Why so many different names for the freestanding furniture storing extra kitchen items? Clearly I needed answers. Now you will have them, too. The following describes the differences of a buffet, a console, a credenza, a server, and a sideboard. Plus a little furniture makeover because, well, you know I’m addicted to it.

Buffet

Straight from Meriam Webster’s dictionary, “a buffet is a piece of dining-room furniture having compartments and shelves for holding articles of table service”. Often used for serving food “buffet style.” A buffet has relatively high legs compared to a sideboard, but they are essentially the same thing. Buffet tables have the cabinetry of a sideboard but with the longer legs of a server. Buffets are also limited to the dining room and will often have glass to display contents stored inside.

Console

A console is a cabinet designed to rest directly on the floor, so no long legs. Most often housing home entertainment equipment like the television or a stereo. Do people still have stereos? Maybe the most modern thing would be to have your virtual assistant AI technology (aka Alexa type device) on it. In my opinion, there are two types of consoles. A media console as described above and console table. The console table is very much like a server, being a thin table with long legs that goes against a wall, but, unlike a server, it is often found in an entry way.

Credenza

A credenza is a sideboard or buffet without legs or with slender legs. It is made for storing items and almost always has sliding doors. Credenzas have made their way out of the dining room and into the office, often designed to hold paper and office supplies and are desk height.

Server

A slender table placed in the dining room for staging food before serving. Servers are not built as storage units and do not usually have much storage or cabinetry, but instead have longer legs and look more like a slender table up against the dining room wall.

Sideboard

Also called a buffet, a sideboard is traditionally used in a dining room for serving food, for displaying serving dishes and for additional storage. The sideboard is often referred to as a server but it has much more cabinetry and storage than a server or a buffet. Typically styled with short legs or the cabinets may reach all the way to the floor. Sideboards are often used inside or outside of the dining room.

Hopefully these definitions clarify things. Now I know that the piece of furniture in my kitchen is a sideboard because it has a lot of storage, has short legs, and can be used to serve food.

Why Paint?

First of all, I liked the piece as it was but the wood tone kind of clashed with the kitchen cabinet’s espresso stain and there were a few worn spots in the finish. Painting the sideboard blue would tie in with the hand painted pottery on the wall, the island stenciling and the kitchen chairs.

Sideboard buffet furniture makeover — The sideboard looked fine, but it lacked the cohesiveness and pop of color needed for the space.

Of course, me being me, I didn’t purchase this piece new. It was found at a local consignment shop. I desperately needed more storage in the kitchen for additional dishes and table cloths. Let’s just be upfront about my addiction to dishes. It is quite possible that I currently have about seven sets of dishes. No, eight. Hey, I have given sets of dishes away to people in need and I recently gave a set to my son when he moved into an apartment at school. Let’s just say I am trying to be prepared for the dish shortage that could happen…anything is possible this year.

Anyhow, I originally thought that I would paint the hardware and do a blending technique with paint to have darker edges and lighter centers on the wood. Once I painted the base color and polished the hardware, my plans changed. Sometimes you need to know when less is more and put the paint brush down and walk away. And then walk right back and clean the paintbrush, of course.

Hardware

A few posts ago I did an experiment with polishing brass hardware to find the most effective technique. You can find that post here. This time, I didn’t have lemons on hand so I did the ketchup technique to use up the extra (questionable) take out ketchup packets from the pantry.

The ketchup worked wonders on the hinges but the pulls must have had a protective coating and they weren’t going to polish so easily. Even after trying to use baking soda as a gentle scrubbing agent, they still weren’t polishing up. No problem, I added white vinegar into the pan and let it all soak. About 30 minutes later I used steel wool to buff them clean and it worked really well. There were a lot of intricate areas to clean so my hands were submersed in the mixture for quite a while. Once everything was polished and looking good I cleaned up. WHAT. THE. HECK!

My hands were orange. Orange like I could be an Oompa Loompa if I were shorter and had green hair. So, chemistry is a real thing and always wear gloves because even though the ingredients alone may not do much, combined they can dye your hands orange. For days. NOTHING removed the orange and I tried a lot of remedies. Fortunately, it’s worn off of my hands and only my nails look repulsive. Knowledge is power my friends.

Compared to cleaning my hands, painting my sideboard was the easy part, here’s the process.

Supply List

Tarp
Degreaser/deglosser (Liquid Sandpaper)
Plastic container
Scotch Brite pad
Clean rag
Disposable gloves
Screwdriver to remove hardware
Masking/painter’s tape
Paint
Stir stick
Paintbrush
Open cell foam roller
Cans or something to prop doors on

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Instructions

Step 1:

Remove drawers and doors from the base of the furniture. Remove all hardware from drawers and/or cabinet doors. Keep screws in a plastic cup or bag.

Step 2:

Polish or paint hardware and let dry thoroughly. To see ways to polish hardware, see link at the end of the post. Promise to wear gloves!

Step 3:

prep furniture to paint — Clean off years of built up grease, dirt and grime with a degreaser and de-glosser. Scrub on and wipe off, it is that easy.

Put down a tarp to protect your work area. Use Liquid Sandpaper, found at your local home improvement store, to remove any dirt and grease. It also preps the shiny surface of the furniture to eliminate the need for sanding prior to painting.

Wear gloves and pour a bit of the Liquid Sandpaper into a small plastic container. Dip the Scotch Brite pad into the Liquid Sandpaper and scrub the soaked pad onto the surface you want to paint. No need to scrub too hard, just scrub like you are giving it a good wash and then wipe with a clean rag or towel. If the piece is greasy or really dirty, it may need multiple scrubbings.

Step 4:

Start with painting the furniture base. The paintbrush was used on all of the details and the open cell roller was used on the flat, broad pieces like the top and drawer fronts. I use Heirloom Traditions Paint for my furniture because I have found it to hold up the best to a life full of boys. No sanding, stripping, sealing or priming is needed with this paint as long as the original piece is not damaged.

To eliminate paint brush lines, I work in small sections and brush on the paint with the paint brush and then lightly go over it with the open cell roller. This helps reduce the visible brush strokes and give a smoother finish when dried. I do not know if this technique would work well with another paint product. That is something I should experiment with. Follow the directions on your paint can label for best results.

Use tape for clean edges — Use painter’s tape to keep nice clean edges on drawers once painted.

TIP: Use masking tape around the edges of the drawer fronts to mask off the sides from any paintbrush marks. Once dry, peel the tape off and you will have a lovely clean edge that looks professional.

Step 5:

Jump around a bit amongst furniture parts and as a coat of paint is drying on the furniture base, move to painting the drawers and cabinet doors. It took three coats of paint until I was satisfied with the coverage and color. Did you know that paint will often dry a shade or two darker than the wet paint color?

Paint dries darker — On the left, see how the paint looks completely different after one coat over the light base as opposed to the one coat over the darker base? On the right, the paint is much lighter and brighter when wet.

TIP: When painting over a piece, the color you are painting over can really have an effect on the finished look. If the base coat is light, the color will seem brighter. If the base coat is dark, the color will be richer and deeper toned.

Step 6:

Once all pieces are painted and dry, reassemble. It can take 7 days for the paint to harden and 30 days to completely cure. Treat the furniture carefully during this time and avoid placing any hard items on it, avoid water on the surface, and do not clean with abrasives. Refrain from shutting the drawers and doors all the way before paint is cured to avoid scratches in the paint surface.

painted sideboard — Before and after. The sideboard received three coats of paint and a good polishing to the hardware. It looks like a completely different piece of furniture.

Like I said before, sometime the plans change when working on a piece. The detail on the doors and edge of the sideboard stood out just fine in the blue paint. The polished hardware gives off a bright glow against the blue and adding a darker glaze or lighter highlights would make it too busy. No need to guild the lily. The bonus is that by editing the paint finish technique, it was less work for me. Now I have more time to work on returning my hands to the proper shade.

blue chalk painted furniture — The before and after of the sideboard. I love how the bright color feels right at home and gives character to the space. Now to accessorize the top once paint is completely cured!

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