Splendid Crendenza

Well folks I can finally post about my thrift store credenza. I bought it over a month ago for $15 bucks! It was originally $30 but it was 50% off, yes!

I needed a good storage piece for my new office and this beauty was just the ticket :)

                                  

             

Oh yeah, she was a real peach...complete with sticky residue, a missing drawer pull and torn off paneling. The Hubby was a bit grossed out. But she's a sturdy gal. And HEAVY. The two of us barely got it into our garage. Thankfully my Daddy had some furniture mover thingies that have wheels on them. They made it so much easier to maneuver Miss Credenze while we worked on her. 

The very first thing I did was clean her up. Good grief, it was pretty bad. But after a near entire container of Clorox wipes, I think I rid every speck of nastiness. 

If you notice in the top picture, part of the front skinny panel is missing, along with the left back corner of the top surface. My dad, who is just amazing, had the idea of adding a new piece of wood to cover the top of the credenza, solving the problem on the top. And trimming it out would take care of the missing half of the front panel as well as adding some stylish flair. 

Also, if you will notice in the second picture, there is gold trim below the front missing panel and again at the bottom of the credenza. It definitely wasn't the look I was going for so we pried it off pretty easily.

We measured the top of Miss Credenze and headed off to Home Depot to purchase some plywood. I love that they handle the cuts for you. One less thing for me to worry about!

Then Daddy and I set to work attaching the new piece. I am new to the power tools so thank goodness for my dad's helping hand. 

Beginning in the center and then working our way out towards each side, we drilled our pilot holes and attached the wood with a bunch of square head screws. 

Daddy drilling a pilot hole

Your girl giving it a go

Who wants to play I Spy? Because I spy something pink (above) and I'm not referring to my t-shirt :) Yep, that's my little ole pink lamp, obviously already painted but still awaiting a new shade. Oh and pardon the chair. That's my thrift store chair I revamped a while back. These two thrifties definitely give away how long Miss Credenze has been in the works.

New top secured

You will notice we removed the two sliding doors. I knew it would be easier to paint that way. I also removed the track they slide on so I could paint it as well.

Next up we had to add the trim. We measured between the top of the new surface to the bottom of the existing half paneling (right above the drawers). We knew it had to be exact since the drawers would be blocked if it was even a fraction too long.

My parents went with me to Home Depot since A) Hubby was still at work, B) someone had to help me pick out the right stuff and C) my child hates shopping so he needed some entertainment.

So we're in the trim section checking out the wide selection of various trim shapes and sizes. The problem we came across was locating one piece of trim that was my exact width...so we were left with finding two complimentary pieces that equaled the correct width. In the midst of our search, little guy made a big ole mess with a sucker so my Dad (the house builder and math whiz of the family) volunteers to take him to the restroom and wash him off, leaving Mom and I alone to calculate trim widths...not very pretty. Definitely not my best subject and let's just face it, "eighths" are confusing. Needless to say, we were thankful when my dad came back on the scene. 

Our best solution turned out to be a flat stick-like trim and a decorative trim that had a groove behind to fit over the flat "stick". The great part is we could adjust it to our desired width.

The flat part attached

Attaching the top grooved piece

One without my hands in the way

All the trim complete!

After we were done I puttied all the screw/nail holes and sanded smooth. I should also mention that I gave the top surface a GOOD sanding to get it really smooth. A few of the trim edges overlapped a little bit but it was instantly fixed with a little sanding of the edges.

My sweet Daddy really did an amazing job showing me how to do this first and major part of the project. Love him!

Next is priming and painting.

I used Zinsser oil based primer to cut out on sanding the entire piece. And it worked great!

I removed all the drawers, drawer pulls and the two locks on the big drawers. I decided to paint the inside of the drawers just because I still had the ick-ness vibe and paint just made me feel better about it :)

I lightly sanded once the primer dried and wiped clean. 

I knew I wanted it two-tone, painting the new top section a dark grey and the remaining piece, white. I chose Behr's Trail Print in semi-gloss for the top and Behr's Swiss Coffee in semi-gloss (which I also used on my china cabinet) for the remainder.

I lightly sanded in between coats giving a nice smooth surface. When it was completely dry, I applied two coats of Wipe-on Poly for a protective coat. 

I scored some adorable vinyl shelf liner in Michael's dollar bins so I lined the bottoms of the drawers with this bit of cuteness. Love!

And once I was done with all that, it moved into the office and sat for several weeks until I decided on what to do about the drawer pulls. I couldn't find any in the local stores that were long enough to fill the existing holes. Mine were 4.25 inches and the longest I found was a little over 3 inches. I know I could have puttied the existing ones and drilled new but honestly, I just didn't want to deal with it (gasp!). So after some procrastination, I finally ordered some purty pulls exactly 4.25 (hole to hole) and they were only a little over $2 a piece. I ordered 4 and my total came in around $16 with shipping. Not too bad. I also purchased two new locks to replace the current ones in the top drawers. This way I have keys! And since they were gold, I also painted them Swiss Coffee to blend with the piece.

And they all fit PERFECTLY!

Introducing Miss Credenze!

Yes, I am purposely not showing you the space above the credenza. That's for another post :)

Here's a few pics of some of my crafting goodies organized in Miss Credenze. I finally have a place to put this stuff! I put fabric and larger items inside the center space behind the sliding doors. No pic of it though.

Wowee that was a long one. I am thrilled the way this piece came together. It was a lengthy process but well worth the effort. More on what's going on above the credenza soon!

Partying Here!