My “This Will Be Easy” Curse {And How To Fix It!}

How to fix furniture damage and painting mistakes. 

Recently I painted our dining room buffet and had SO many issues during the
process. I’m sharing how I fixed all of them along the way and ended up with a
gorgeous result! 

I know better by now…I’ve learned to never say to myself “Wow! This project
is going so well!” — because something inevitably happens right after
I say it. 

Definitely can’t think it, and never say it out loud. 😂

I also know I should never, ever EVER tell myself that a DIY project won’t
take long. I’ve done it a million times…this will be so easy! This won’t
take long at all! I’ve done this 800 million times, what could go wrong? 

I know these things, and yet this is what I did. 

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I was worried I wouldn’t love the distressed sideboard against the lighter
wall, but I quite liked it! 

But over the past few months I kept getting a nagging feeling that this spot
needed some contrast. The dining table has a light wood tabletop as well,
and the room just needed something. 

Over the years my home decor style has morphed to a more traditional look,
and this piece was feeling a little shabby chic — but I still really liked
the bones and knew I could update it somehow. 

This is where the “This will be so easy and fast!” part comes in. I decided
to paint it with a dark paint color that would give it a bit more
presence. 

I was determined to use paint we have in our stash — the color is called
Rojo Marron from Sherwin-Williams and I used it to paint my husband’s office
last year. 

The piece is very basic really, no detailed trim or anything, and the door
handles are built in so there wasn’t much hardware to take off. 

I figured I could get the whole thing painted in a couple hours (not
including dry time). I was so confident I started this project later in the
evening, thinking I could do the finishing touch ups the next morning. 

Do you sense the foreboding? 

I shared an easy way to paint furniture
(with no primer) last year — but this time I didn’t even use my normal
degreasing spray because I thought there was no protective finish on the
wood. (Liquids would sometimes stain it easily.) 

That would come back to bite me in the butt. 

I could tell after the first coat had dried that something had
been used on the surface. I always sand in between coats of paint for a
super smooth finish: 

And I noticed it was taking off more than it should have, especially for such
a light sanding. That was problem number one, more on that in a bit. 

I ended up taking the doors off to paint them, and the cane fronts proved to
be WAY more difficult to paint than I thought. Even with a small fluffy roller
and a paint brush, I just couldn’t get into the little crevices. 

I really like those for painting trim, but they also worked well for the cane
because I could really smoosh it in around to get better coverage. 

My plan all along was to not paint the inside of the doors or the interior.
But when I put the doors back on, the lighter wood on the doors (because you
could see through the cane) was making it all look unfinished. 

So I went through the whole process on the inside as well: 

As I was working, I noticed all kinds of little issues I had never noticed on
this furniture before. 

Both left side doors were not hanging evenly, so I tried adding adjusting the
hinges a bit. It helped on one side, but not the other: 

I was learning very quickly that this piece was made to look a little worn and
shabby on purpose. Or maybe it was just crappy craftsmanship, who knows.
😉 

Painting the inside of the doors made everything look so much better,
but I was bothered by the lighter wood I could see around the edges: 

So I taped off the interior areas with painter’s tape and did a couple coats
so the color was seamless on the front. 

As you can see, the part where the cane meets the door frames was looking
awful as well. 

On day four I realized it would look even better with some caulk and
filled in around the trim as well: 

Look how much better the door on the left looks with the trim!: 

I never noticed all of these little issues before! Painting sure brought out
all of the problem areas. 

Remember my concern about the paint not sticking very well? I used the semi
gloss finish in this same color (we had both semi and eggshell) for the
additional coats. Semi gloss just holds up better in general. 

While I was add it, I grabbed my Rub n Buff and touched up the metal hinges as
well: 

It took four days and countless hours, but the final result WAS worth it! I’m
thrilled with the deep, rich color and am so glad I made this
change: 

It turned out just gorgeous!! We love it. 

Oh, bonus problem I ran into — the darker color was making it much easier to
see what was inside. The original finish allowed me to just pile things
inside, but no longer. 😁

 SO I ended up pulling out every single thing: 

Told you this holds a lot of stuff! 

It turned out to be a good thing, because we definitely don’t need it all. I
kept about half and moved a few items to other spots in the kitchen. 

Now even the inside looks pretty!: 

I really love the lighter wood inside — it gives it some dimension. 

The color is just beautiful! So rich and looks fantastic against the lighter
walls: 

This deep burgundy also pulls some color out of the rug as well. 

Overall this project, that I thought would take a few hours, ended up taking
a few hours a day over four days. I thought it would never end. 

The contrast adds so much warmth and character to this room, I’m thrilled
with it: 

Hopefully this will help if you run into the same issues while giving
furniture a makeover. Don’t give up!! Haha!