Operation Buffet: Complete!

Holy buckets, can you guys believe it's already December?! Depending on where you live, you might be thinking the same thing I am - it's been way too warm to feel like winter is coming! This week alone we had two days in the upper 60's and two more in the 50's. Today is actually a little cooler at a rough 47 degrees. I'm not sure what to make of it all, but I'm hoping that whenever winter does get here, it doesn't come with a vengeance. Unless there's snow ... lots and lots of snow ... enough snow to close down the city. I could deal with that.

Oh, you didn't come here to read about the weather?

Silly me.

I guess you were hoping to see some pictures of the buffet.

And you're probably hoping to hear why it took me so long to finish it.

{spoiler alert: I have no good excuses, except that I like to drag out projects until Jesse starts getting gray hairs ... and let's just say he's got a few floating around on his head}

You might also be a little curious about the little details ...

Oooo-ooooo-oooohh

aaaa-aa-aawwww

Alright, I'll quit teasing. Let's get to the meat and potatoes of this post!

To get started, let's take a quick look back at the buffet from when I first brought it home. It wasn't in horrible shape, but there were a lot of scratches across the top, as well as a few nicks around the drawers and doors. I also didn't like the color of the wood next to everything else in our dining room.



{Here's the story of how I found the buffet ... 8 months ago}

I actually finished the buffet in November October September, but I wanted to get it into the dining room and do a little decorating before the big reveal. And, while decorating was my first priority, filling it with our stuff seemed to be Jesse's. So, before I could start buying cutesy little owls and stealing pictures off of other walls in my house, I had to do some reorganizing in the kitchen and drawer/cabinet filling in the buffet.

But alas, I finally finished everything on the to-do list, and after three more weeks of delaying, here are the final results!

Are you curious about what's sitting up on top? I hope so, because I'm about to tell you.

Starting from the left, I have a few Halloween/thank you/birthday cards that we received last month, a picture that I bought from Target a few years ago (it was previously hanging in the upstairs hallway), an owl that I just picked up at TJ Maxx, a pumpkin spice candle, and a miniature cake pedestal that we got as a wedding gift. I also laid down two place mats to act as a runner until I find something more permanent.

Enough of the close-ups, let me show you how the buffet looks next to the table. It seems to blend perfectly with everything in the room.

I couldn't zoom out enough to fit the entire dining room in these pictures, but I hope you get the idea.

{note to self: add fancy-schmancy camera to the Christmas list}

Thanks to everyone who voted when I couldn't decide what to do, and thank you for sticking around long enough to see the big reveal. I know eight months is much longer than it should have taken, but I think my next project will be much quicker, especially now that I've got this one under my belt.

P.S. I already started typing up my thoughts/opinions about the products I used for this project, as well as a few tips that might be helpful for other newbie painters, all of which I'm planning to post before I lose momentum.

Warning: I have my birthday party, Jesse's soccer game, a birthday dinner for a friend, and a few dozen cookies to make this weekend {I'm hosting a cookie exchange party for a bunch of my girlfriends next weekend!}. Oh, and I also want to put up our Christmas decorations ASAP. And did I mention that my VERY best friend is coming in town on Friday? In other words, it might be a little hectic at my casa for the next week. Either way, I'm determined to keep up with this dang blog, so I will do my best to come back with Part Two very soon! Promise.

P.S.S. You can read more about the infamous buffet here, here, here and here.

P.S.S.S. Isn't this owl the cutest thing you've ever seen?? I carried it around TJ Maxx for about 30 minutes, trying to decide if I should buy it or not. At just $12, I don't know why I was ever wavering!

Have a good weekend and I'll talk to you next week!!

P.S. This post is linked up to