{a draper sideboard: from don to betty}

my new favorite completed project is well overdue for a blog post. found this sixties madmen-esque quatrefoil sideboard in asheville this past spring. for $90 (!!) while hard to tell in the before photo, the wood really isn't that nice, so nothing to lose with a couple coats of paint.

the real gem of this piece though is the storage!

the panels behind the cut-out doors popped out easily. originally thinking about replacing them with mirrored panels to add a bit of glam to the mod design, i have to give credit to my mom who suggested spray painting the panels silver (= much much cheaper than paying to have custom cut mirrored panels)

and here's the final transformation. now if only i could find a way to disguise the loveliness that is the carport behind the sideboard.

storage for vases and silver platters.

p.s. if you're wondering about the process used to refinish this piece, i'll tell you but i don't really recommend it. i have since figured out a much better method (see the end of this post). so perhaps this is more of a lesson in what is not best when painting wood furniture. and it starts with too much sanding. sanding to the point of a very dull finish which translates to wood that laps up a gazillion cans of spray paint --yes spray paint, which in retrospect is not really recommended for wood furniture (especially if sanded to the point of extreme porosity). but see i found this lacquer spray paint which i thought would be perfect to achieve that ideal glossy finish, which it did eventually, but took a long time and numerous coats and sandings in between coats. i did apply a primer spray paint first, but somehow that didn't really seem to alleviate the need for twelve cans (not an exaggeration) of the lacquer spray paint, which also required no less than three trips to a combined home depot, lowes, and michaels.

i will say that the silver panels were a different story, which i will say partially restored my faith in spray painting. i'm not sure if it was due to a different type of spray paint or the fact that i didn't really sand the panels. but lesson learned is that if you are going the spray paint route with wood furniture, just do a very light sanding.

i should mention that streaks and lines are another issue with spray painting. even when applied with light and even coats, the lines are still visible. after getting so frustrated with lines on the top, i finally took a small foam roller and did the lightest of coats of latex semi-gloss just to even everything out.

so a bit of agony to get great results, but overall well worth the trouble.