Summer Projects: Transforming Our Stinky Thrifted Buffet – Step by Step

Alright, dear friends… This project has been anything but ethereal, let me tell you! When I bought this buffet from a local thrift shop three years ago, I loved its look! I really wanted it to work for extra storage for tableware. However, once inside our house and with the high summer heat and humidity kicked in, the “stank” came out… Let’s try and remedy this!

Terrible, terrible timing

Our daughter Amy had driven up for a visit, and unfortunately, it was when the buffet was moved from the kitchen into the living room… I got up one morning after smelling “cigarette smoke” all night long… Mom asked Daughter if she’d been smoking in the bathroom, maybe vaping??

Actually, it came out as more of an accusation, and it was a terrible snafu on my part. I really hurt my daughter’s feelings… and then my son was mad at me, because of course he found out…

How could I say that? It was awful… I really didn’t think of the buffet at the time.

And I did apologize profusely, and multiple times, to both of them, once I figured out what was going on.

What was happening was that the air conditioning was moving “the stink” leaching out of the buffet and moving it around the house. It got into the front bathroom, which Amy was using of course while she was here, and it was a whole thing…

The buffet must have been in a smoker’s home, or a smoke-filled bar, possibly, and had most likely been used as a humidor. The insides of both the tall cupboard areas smell the worst. And it could have just been old wood, which I know has a certain smell…

IT STINKS, no two ways about it!

How to fix this stinky “elephant-in-the-room?”

Well, quite literally, I left it to sit in our garage to “air out” for the past two years while thinking about what to do to solve this problem. I did try varnish on the underside and back to try and seal in the smell that first fall (2023), but that didn’t work.

Then sometime during 2024, I sanded and spray-painted the inside of the stinky cabinet spaces with white paint, thinking that might kill the smell??

Nope!

Better, but still icky…

Stripping, Sanding & Painting ~ The Real Work Begins

I realized early this year (2026, for those reading in subsequent years) that I would have to strip the entire buffet of ALL varnish and sand down the entire buffet and sand the interior spray paint and begin again.

The spray paint was good because it got into places I knew I couldn’t get to with a brush, so that idea did help! 🙂

The only way to really kill smells is with a complete strip, then sanding the wood down, and to paint with Kilz, which is a sealer and stain-blocker.

The choice was clear: to try paint and see if that would work.

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Supplies needed

• Citris Strip or another paint and varnish stripper
• Stains in various colors to match your furniture piece
• metal scrapers
• various sanding blocks, belts and/or an electric/battery palm sander with velcro sanding pads
• small wire brushes to get into furniture grooves/mouldings
• old paint brushes, one dedicated to the stripper and another for painting
• paint roller and foam roller
• paint in color of choice
• special dust mask for working with paints and strippers to protect from fumes and particles in air
• latex or other work gloves to protect hands
• work glasses to protect eyes
• dropcloth or plastic to protect surfaces
• painters’ tape
• wood glue and clamps

So that’s what I’ve decided to try. If this doesn’t work, I will be listing it online for sale… And it will have a fresh new paint job for the next owner, lol! 😉

Steps to take

1. Apply stripping agent with a paint brush and let sit up to 24 hours. This can also be applied several times for stubborn varnish/paint areas on a wood piece.
2. Scrape off the stripper and varnish with scraping tools including wire brushes and flat metal scrapers. I like the stiffer metal wire brush as it also helps “sand” wood pieces and gets into crevices better! Brass wire brushes were too soft for this project.
3. Wipe down and vacuum the furniture “area” you are working on when you are done.
4. Use a damp wet rag to neutralize the stripping formula. Some people apply a liquid agent to stop the stripper but I don’t find that necessary. Just use a damp rag with a bit of water on it to neutralize the stripper, which I did.
5. Sand lightly or heavily as needed with sand paper, wire brushes for grooves and crevices. Vacuum and wipe down each area when you finish to remove any sanding dust.

Protective equipment

When sanding, especially, wear a respirator or dust mask with a good filtering system. Some wood fillers have silica in them (read the labels) and when sanding that dust, it NEVER comes out of your lungs!

That’s where you hear of kitchen counter stone installers coming up with Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis ~ (from Wikipedia.com) that disease of the lungs.

Translation: pneumono = lung and circulatory system; ultra microscopic = you get that one; silico = silica or “glass,” like from a volcano; coniosis = Greek: konis = “dust.” And from my pre-med classes in the Athletic Training program = otis/itis = inflammation.

It’s a build up of small particles of glass dust in the lungs causing inflammation, quite literally. The dust embeds in your lungs ~ think: Mt. Vesuvius and those poor folks who died from all that ash… It’s one of the thing lungs cannot move out on their own. 🙁

Wear latex or other protective gloves. We get boxes of them at Harbor Freight. They come in 5ml and 7ml, and the 7ml seem to wear better for me as they are a bit thicker and more resistant to tearing. 😉

Keep good air circulation by opening your garage door to let fresh air inside. Vacuum your floor and surroundings after every time sanding. Vacuum your furniture piece, too, using the soft brush attachment to prevent scratches.

Glue any loose veneer and fix any loose joints with wood glue and tape/clamps as needed. Let sit to dry for 24 hours. Sand to remove any excess clumps of glue before staining or painting.

Paint time!

After doing all the stripping, sanding, puttying, more sanding and a final wiping down with a dust-free cloth, it was time to paint! 😀

I used a nylon paint brush and a small, reusable, felted paint roller on this project. I started with Kilz stain blocker, two coats (three coats on the cabinet doors) and in parts, three coats.

Kilz stainblocker dries really fast, so often you can finish an area and then begin again almost immediately.

Painting the buffet, I worked on it in sections and would let each dry for at least 4 hours between each coat, usually overnight. After I painted on the second coat, let that dry, I would move onto the next section.

Here I painted the underbody of the buffet first, then painted the legs. I moved to the insides of the buffet after that.

The final paint color is Benjamin Moore‘s White Dove PM-19, a lovely off-white. At our last house in California, I painted a Dove White color on our walls and it just glowed! My hope for this buffet is that it will also glow when sunlight hits it in the future! 🙂

Painting the top

All of the plastic I had been using, I just repositioned to just under the top’s edge. Mr. Ethereal found the palm sander and the round sandpapers so I could sand smooth the top and back pieces.

I worked through most of one stack from the round “box” which contained these metal sandpapers ~ from 80 grit (very rough), 120, 180, 220, 280, to 400 (very fine). After sanding, I vacuumed the top and wiped it down. The upright back part of the buffet was also sanded using the palm-sander and by also hand-sanding with flexible foam sanding blocks (to get into the crevices).

Three light layers of Kilz later, and then four light coats of White Dove PM-19, the top was completed. I did sand with 400 grit between a couple of the coats to smooth the roller “flat spots” down. You can also use “0000 steel wool” (4 ought), which also gives a nice finish.

Pro Tip: When you save a roller to reuse, place it inside a Ziplock bag loaded with some paint. This keeps the roller from drying out while you are inbetween coats of paint.

Also, stand it over a mug to keep the roller from developing “flat spots.” I forgot and didn’t do this, but after so many coats of paint, and paying attention to areas missed or in need of extra paint, the final result looks really good!

Getting to the Final Result

I wanted to “pick-out” the buffet’s carved and applique details, so I dry-brushed those areas to keep some of the original dark wood look in the grooves. I love the Shabby Chic look and the buffet is turning out beautifully!

I left all of the staples and nail repairs in situ; I want future owners to know what repairs were made. Some of the backer wood on the buffet as well as much of the top piece’s back veneer has water/moisture damage, so I sanded those really well.

That could have also been part of the “smell” issue.

How to alter a frame to affix to furniture

I finished off the buffet with an idea to highlight the company logo stamped on the back of the buffet… I began with:

1. I sanded the back just like the top, instructions above.
2. Layers and layers of Kilz (I think 6 light layers, in total) rolled on to block the remaining stain and smells from bleeding through.
3. The final coats of paint were rolled onto the buffet’s back piece ~ about 4 light coats ~ of Benjamin Moore‘s White Dove PM-19.
4. Finding an inexpensive frame with French style, or something equally beautiful to suit your favorite decorating style, to surround the buffet’s logo. This particular shape is called an “ogee,” in case you aren’t familiar with the term.

After that, I looked in my stash of frames for one which would be fairly flat as I didn’t want to add too much bulk to the back of the cabinet piece. The one I did have was not wide enough…

So I went shopping! 😀 I found this black frame at a 40% off sale at Kirklands in Flower Mound, Texas.

After adding some Rub’n’Buff in Antique Gold to highlight the edges of the picture frame, this was left to dry overnight.

While that dried, I lightly sanded where it would be glued with wood glue to the buffet cabinet back. The next day, I applied the wood glue with an old small watercolor brush and then used blue painters’ tape to hold it in place for a day to dry (not shown).

I had to use some of the saved orange stripper (with which I had cleaned the drawer pulls by letting them soak in the stripper for several days, inside an old metal can), and a small metal scraper to “pick and scrape off” the white paint which was showing ~ having painted the back piece before I thought of adding a frame. Originally, I had left a rectangle shape open, and I realized it was kind of boring… Hence the idea for a frame!

***When I first thrifted this buffet, I wrote about finding this buffet and about the company which made it, Giant Furniture Company, in this post.

Here is how this buffet looked when I first brought it home. I loved its original finish and would have kept it that way… If it weren’t for the stinky-stank…

This appliqued frame turned out as I hoped!

Yes, the logo is off-center as an employee at Giant Furniture in High Point, North Carolina, some 80 – 100+ years ago didn’t center the stencil when he rolled the stamp logo and number.

Anyway, this is piece #80 of however many they created in total! 😉

A mix of two stains was applied and now it is finished. Minus the boo-boo of stain I now need to get off with Goo-gone or just add some Kilz and paint over… 😉 ***Turns out rubbing with a damp cloth cleaned it right up. 🙂

The freshly cleaned and re-gilded drawer pulls (Rub’n’Buff in Burnish Copper and Antique Gold) were screwed on (with some help from WD-40), and this buffet is done!

Our Beautiful Ethereal Buffet!

Here is the grand reveal and so far, so good! I will keep a sharp nose out for any lingering icky scents, but hopefully this is a BIG WIN!!!

Mr. Ethereal and I, after he worked up in the attic again (more cleaning) and I cleaned inside our house, we went out to lunch. Then, a trip to the big box hardware store for an attic fan and other things.

He had rolled the buffet in first thing this morning and I got busy wiping out dust from being inside the garage even before finishing breakfast. This afternoon, after being out for several hours, I came home and waxed this beautyf…

And now it glows!!! Soooooo happy!

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Happy decorating, dear friends,