I meant to post this sooner but my week has been ultra busy – well, busy for me I should say, seeing that I do most of my blogging in the evening.   Thursday night we went to the cinema with friends to see Paul (big Simon Pegg fans in the Swoon Worthy household – t’was funny although nothing will ever beat Shaun of the Dead);  On Friday night, I went to a dear friend’s leaving do who is off to Korea for a year (!);  Saturday was best spent in recovery from Friday night (drank far too much, oh dear) and today, W finally used my birthday present to him from last April (!!) which gave him the opportunity to drive a single-seater race car very fast around a big track.

Being the massive F1 fan and fan of fast cars and karting in general, he loved it.  I stayed in the pits and took lots of pictures and generally froze my arse off because wow, it was SERIOUSLY COLD and of course, typical for me, I didn’t dress warmly enough.  But W had the time of his life, which was what it was all about.

Go Speed Racer Go!

But come on, be honest, you really could give a shit about the last few days of my life, can you?  You just want to see the sideboard, don’t you?  Well, okay, I won’t make you wait any longer…

As you may recall from this post, this was what the sideboard looked like prior to getting my grubby mitts on it…

 

And because there are a million and one tutorials out there on how to refinish furniture, I will leave that to the experts and just share with you some ‘during’ shots…

After sanding…

Drawers and cupboard doors get the first coat of primer…

After the first coat of paint…

And finally… ta da!

You’ll notice we painted the cover where the leads go from the television to behind the sideboard and I have to say, I’m pretty happy how subtle it is.  It would have been nice to have them recessed completely into the wall and that was a consideration but with 100+ year old walls, we were afraid the brick was just too brittle to go digging into it.  So we went with this option.

As I’ve spoken about in a previous post, my intention is to create a gallery wall so the television doesn’t take centre stage and I’m still working on it.  I don’t want to start putting things on the wall, however, until I have amassed a bit of a collection so the process is unfortunately a bit slow.

I really like the way the sideboard now balances the white doors and the white mantle on the opposite walls.

I decided to leave the hardware exactly as it was – the aged rusty bronze patina is just lovely and I love the way it looks against the clean white background.  When the sideboard was stained, it just didn’t show off the hardware the way it does now.

I was really unsure how to ‘decorate’ the sideboard and it’ll probably change a hundred more times but at the moment, I have a few of our favourite autobiographies… If you are curious, the Russell Brand and Stephen Fry books are mine; The Long Way Round and Simon Pegg are W’s.

I like my hardback books ‘naked’ better than with the sleeves. I covered two other hardback books in just plain kraft paper. They aren’t books that either of us have actually read, but strictly for aesthetics! Shhh!

And some cheapy flowers on the opposite side.

Despite being cheap, they do add a wee bit of brightness.

I have to admit, I was actually tempted to just leave the sideboard stained when we initially brought it home but I’m really so pleased with the white, it really balances the room so nicely and it makes the room feel that one more step closer to ‘done’.

And how about another reminder of how far this room has come using little more than a healthy amount of paint and a £50 sideboard from eBay?

After all everyone likes a good Before…

And After…

It’s not done yet by any means, but we’re definitely getting there.  Aside from the gallery wall, the floors still need to be refinished and I’ve been keeping my eye out for a new light fixture (the current one is definitely too high above the table, regardless).  Soft furnishings are also on the agenda and we’ll be needing a rug.  So yeah, lots more to come!

So what do you think?   Do you think I should have left it stained?  Or gone with a different colour all together?  Or cleaned up the hardware?  Have you given an old piece of furniture a new lease of life?  Do share in the comments…

Image credits:  All images my own.