Transforming a Lane Mid Century Buffet...into Turquoise Loveliness Part II

Peeps here is my very own turquoise buffet! It's simple, it has great modern lines, and some eclectic touches, like the satin nickel and glass handles. Just because I'm a sucker for glass handles. This was the first attempt at taking a Craigslist find and re-vamping it.

What do you think?

Here's where the process started - some sanding of the original piece.

Rocky, my Assistant, giving some positive vibes our way. He knew this was our first attempt at painting furniture, too, and he wanted it to go well!

My mom even came over and got into the sanding act. Here she is sanding down the Mid-Century coffee table that was part of the Mood Board I created for the library/bar. This piece was a hand-me-down from my grandmother and I love the Mid-Century lines on it, but it's seen better days and was definitely in need of some TLC.

Hubs getting into the act. The original buffet didn't have handles, and we wanted to add them on, so he built a template so we could easily get those handles on there once the paint had dried.

Dragon pots from Chinatown were our very technical ways of holding down the drop cloth in the Hawaiian breeze.

My job: Ensuring my mom had ample supply of Riesling. I was official wine supplier.

We used paint with primer, and the color went on really smoothly. I was crossing my fingers I'd be happy with the color - I chose Lagoon by Martha Stewart at Home Depot. They were able to custom match using a Behr base with the primer included.

Waiting for the paint to dry... Added the handles that I love and couldn't wait to get it in the house! I was definitely happy with the results! Can't wait for the next dresser project to present itself!

Transforming a Lane Mid Century Buffet...into Turquoise Loveliness Part I

This awful quality photo is of a Lane Mid-Century Buffet I was lucky enough to find on Craigslist for $50 this week. I can't even tell you, peeps, this is Craigslist gold. For $50 and from a nice man named Bob, I got his very cute piece for the Library/Bar.

(BTW, If you're looking at those doors on the left and crinkling your nose, I'm not offended. I did the same. More on the doors below.)

Here's an example of the same type of buffet I found online.

Adorbs.

Now here is the actual piece again, this time, with the rattan doors gone and wearing its matching wood doors. Ha! The doors are something like the dress on my Peaches-n-Cream Barbie I had in 1984... Reversible! If you had that Barbie, I'm your soul sister. But back to the doors and their reversible abilities... How mod, I swear.

But the buffet is so solid, peeps, and was in such great condition. No veneer, it is all wood. There were some watermarks on the top, but the drawers glide like buttah.

& my favorite part? Those legs.

*Sigh*

I'm a sucker for Mid Century Modern legs!

Now here comes the tricky part. The piece is GREAT, but if you remember my blog post about the library / bar, it's part of a grand plan! & I want to paint it turquoise. My inspiration comes from pieces like these:

A great turquoise dresser from Primitive and Proper. Check out Cassie's blog. I've only recently discovered and I love it.

Another gorgeous piece featured on Cococozy. Coco offers daily eye candy for me and I love seeing what she finds!

Well, with all that in mind, here are three shades of turquoise I've narrowed down that I'm thinking of for the fab mid-century buffet to put in the modern-esque pacific coastal room I'm putting together.

No.1 Tropical Tide from Behr.

No. 2 Surfer from Behr

No. 3 Lagoon by Martha Stewart

Very subtly different. I'm leaning towards Martha's color. Up close - and I'm not sure if it shows up in the photos - it has a grey-ish cast that tones the color down a bit. If you don't know, I'm afraid of color. I'm one of those people. But I'm breaking out of my shell, peeps. I'm embracing the turquoise.

So... which do you like?

The Vintage Mid-Century Modern Sofa is Mine, All Mine

Hello! Just a quick line I wanted to drop with some up-to-the-minute photos of the library/bar. My hunt for a vintage mid-century modern sofa has come to an end with this awesome brown vinyl/pleather/not-really-leather sofa below with the great lines and awesome wooden legs. The room needs fun things in it now to keep it from feeling stodgy, but the bones are to my liking!

Have a great day!

Do you think Don Draper would approve?

Sofas are a crazy thing. Vintage Mid-Century Modern ones even more. For whatever reason, I have to have the real deal - must be vintage, no recently made lookalikes. Which means I must live with imperfection. But you know me, I find the beauty in that. Here is the latest sofa find I'm thinking about for our library/bar. I am in love with the lines and the legs on this thing! Worst of all, Hawaii is so, so small that finding a vintage piece is not the easiest task. I'd rather wait than get something I won't really love, but I think this piece would look great with the right touches. We're still in the dating phase, so I can't get my hopes up completely because she is technically not mine, but I think she'd look fabulous in the space. What do you all think?

I'm planning to put together a board that would combine the pieces for the library/bar. I'd like to keep my other mid-century modern find in the room with it. This is the chair I wanted to re-cover in cowhide, if you remember from a previous post. I spoke with an upholsterer after getting nervous about doing the job myself and the cost seems a little high for two cushions. Alas, the chair will stay as-is for now, but I have hope! It would look great either way, and if I can't cover the chair in Bessie, the cowhide can live on the floor and would still look great in the space.

By the way, I'm seeing cowhide peak out everywhere, most recently at my favorite source of inspiration, Restoration Hardware. Here are some pieces that I'm ogling at the moment. But alas, usually with Restoration Hardware, I can only ogle from afar. Their prices freak my wallet out more than the J.Crack ever did.

1950's Copenhagen Chair Hair on Hide Front, Restoration Hardware

Brazilian Cowhide Pillow Covers, Restoration Hardware $69 - $99

I'm picturing some book cases, preferably a thin tower version, on either side of the Don Draper sofa, to be filled with bar accoutrements and books to complete the theme. I like the two shelving units here.

Vintage Industrial Tower, Restoration Hardware

Reclaimed Elm & Iron Leaning Shelving, Restoration Hardware

Must go now and get the Little Guy ready for school, but drop me a line and let me know what you think so far of the bar/library? Is it the vintage feel I'm going for?