Thrifting Thursday - The Showstopper

I nabbed this vintage entertainment center for $40 a few years ago. I didn't have a place in mind when I bought it, but it was a screaming deal, and dang it, I would MAKE it fit somewhere. But even when we moved into a new house with 1,000 more square feet, it still didn't really have a place. Just like my Lane bench that I talked about yesterday, it was hard, but knowing it would never really work in my house, I felt okay with letting it go, especially since it was going to my sister, Melinda.

Melinda is a meticulous artist when it comes to refinishing furniture. She doesn't do anything half-way, so I was SO excited to see what she was going to do with this guy.

Here's what it looked like before:
(please excuse the horrible before pictures, it's all we could find.)

It was a heavy, brown monstrosity with great bones and SO much potential.

Melinda was going to refinish this to use as a TV console, and as you can see, it wasn't going to function very well in its present state. 

So first she removed the record shelves and other insides that they didn't want, and patched up the holes. She sanded the entire piece and also stripped the top down completely and stained it, thinking that she wanted to do a two-toned look, but changed her mind and started over. You can see the dark walnut finish on the top in this picture. 

Next she primed the whole thing with tinted primer. Notice that the top opens up? Instead of replacing the top, they decided to keep it as-is since the wood is in very good shape and the opening isn't very noticeable. 

And then she painted it with an amazing color called Empress Teal by Olympic. She polished up the original handles and replaced the knobs with beautiful crystal ones she got on clearance at Target.

Isn't it so freaking amazing??? Talk about extreme makeover. It's like Sasquatch reincarnated into a mid-century god. Ooo! Like Cary Grant, or Rock Hudson.

Never been so grateful to pass along a piece of furniture. Didn't she do a great job? There's more where that came from, and I'll be highlighting more of her stuff in the future.