Refried Furniture- -Entertainment Center (FINALLY)

I have finally finished the entertainment center! I feel accomplished. Here's a piece of free advice, use it in good health, when redoing furniture, especially larger pieces, do not do them in a one-bedroom apartment as there is not much space and you WILL get black paint on your carpet! This was not a huge feat of any sort however it was a big project to me. I repainted our bedroom furniture last year, looks rough, but did not spend the time on it like I should have however ANYTHING and I mean ANYTHING would have looked better than what it looked like before and it does look "better" but compared to what it was that's not saying much... This project however was a chance for redemption in my attempts to paint furniture. Re-re-painting the bedroom suite will be next but not any time before we move. I was bound and determined to do this piece (and the coffee table) to the best of my ability and to spend TIME on it. All in all this has taken me about 2 1/2 - 3 weeks factoring in illness and life in general. I must say it is by no means perfect and there are several mistakes but I must also say it is a pretty decent looking piece now. I am proud of it. It was a really fun project to do and took some good work and if nothing else painting was a form of relaxation for me which is good because it counteracted my craziness from having a VERY disheveled apartment! I bought the piece from a furniture consignment shop on Lorna Road called Home Again. It is a tiny store with some diamonds-in-the-rough and some straight-up junk. I paid $45 for the solid wood piece and quite frankly I think it was a steal! As you will see from the pictures it had some cute(insert sarcastic tone) brassy-goldish hardware on it which I was quick to paint and some embellishments that I was not sure about but after a good coat of paint turned out nicely. Let me pause to say it is truly amazing what a good coat of paint can do. It is the same form of amazing that a good haircut can do for someone. I would say good paint to furniture is what a good haircut to people is. Something simple yet makes all the difference. So anyways, I had AW remove all of the hardware and doors and drawers and I got to work. I lightly sanded every piece to begin with and wiped all of the dust off. I began painting to "TV doors" first. I did two coats of the black paint on the front and back and let them dry. In the mean time I painted 2 of the 5 shelves black. The natural color of the wood is really pretty so I decided to leave some of it exposed but only the parts where it was not scratched. While the shelves were drying I then began painting the drawers solid black. This took me about an hour or so on each drawer and I did two good coats. When the paint had dried on the TV doors I taped them off and painted the middle panel in the Hampton Green. I let the green paint dry overnight and then distressed the panels so that the black shows through the green a little bit. To distress the green panel I had to use a different kind of sandpaper that was very coarse. Do not use wimpy sandpaper when distressing, it will just look like you have smudged the paint. I also painted the embellishments and hardware black and I love the way they turned out. I then began work on the glass "media doors". I taped off the glass and then gave each door two good coats in the Black Suede. I also taped off some of the wood that I decided to leave exposed. Honestly, I wish I would have left some part of the wood exposed on the drawers as well but oh well, a lesson learned. After the black paint had dried on the media doors I painted the bottom panels green, let them dry overnight and distressed them allowing the wood to slightly come through. I used a roller to paint the sides and top of the entertainment center's body and a small, craft brush to paint the detailing. Painting the body was the easiest and quickest part. I also gave it two good coats of the Black Suede. As I stated earlier, I am pleased with the results although there are some spots where the paint is not perfectly even or a line is not perfectly straight but these are things that I hope to improve upon as I continue to get experience. This piece and the coffee table have truly redeemed my abilities and the bedroom furniture can be forgiven however it is not forgotten. I have no idea when I will be able to work on it but hopefully by the end of this summer I can get it done! Enjoy all of the pictures I took and ignore some of the weird spots that show up, I suppose my lens is dirty. I am definitely no photographer. Also, be on the lookout for my next post as I will be reviewing a really neat book!

PS -- I threw in a great picture of a Sistine Chapel model in here (AW loves to steal the show) =)

The cost for a "new" entertainment center was:

$45 - furniture

$20 - paint

$6 - sandpaper

---------------------------

$71 GRAND TOTAL

--L