Side of the Road Buffet Makeover

Remember how I posted last week about finding this buffet on the side of the road thanks to the tip from a fabulous blog reader?

Scroll through the photos and refresh your memory because these are now the "before" shots.

We used our kitchen rug as a guide for the color. I wanted something that would be a statement piece, different from everything else in our house. I went to the Benjamin Moore paint dealer (I love their colors) and brought home all these paint chips.

We decided on Westminster Gold because it would stand out well in the room and coordinated amazingly with the wall and rug. And then I painted it on the hutch and almost started to cry at my wasted time and how truly awful it looked in the room. The color on the chip didn't at all make us think we were getting a cannery yellow color.

I didn't want to spend the money on another quart of paint so I used an existing paint that I had for our hallway (Martha Stewart's Sandpiper) and tinted it a smidge darker with a tiny bit of an acrylic paint Butter Pecan that I had from a paint project with Drew. Here is the finished product... I wish it was a little darker but maybe at some point I'll go back and edit that.

Blog reader, Shannon from the Scribble Pad, suggested I use veggies to stage. Since this project was in the kitchen I knew this would be the perfect opportunity to buy the gorgeous carrots and beets with their tops still on them.

I placed them all on a large wooden cutting board for the size and to get a more interesting texture than simply a large white platter.

Let's do the zoom around the room so you can see what it looks like from different angles.

Here it is from the stairway:

From the front entryway:

From the fridge on the other side of the kitchen island:

Now, on a different note, yesterday was our third anniversary. AJ got me this great climbing hydrangea, a super sweet card and cut Stargazer Lilies in white (we love them because they smell incredible).

I gave him a framed timeline of important dates in our relationship, here it is in the frame:

Here it is with the reflection but hopefully you can still read it.

For privacy sake I blocked out our address that I put under "bought our first house".

Have you handmade anything for an anniversary for a spouse or special occasion with a significant other?