How to Lighten Wood WITHOUT Stain or Bleach | Buffett Dresser Flip |

hey guys welcome back to furniture flipping teacher if you're new here my name is lauren and i am the furniture flipping teacher i recently resigned from my full-time job as a kindergarten teacher and i am here to show you how i take old and outdated furniture and give it a new life and give it a new purpose i hope to inspire a creative way for you to also earn a little bit of extra income or even take the furniture in your own house and give it a new life personally neiman and i are on a journey for us to save up for a down payment on a house and that is being all done by the profits i make from flipping furniture today i am going to be flipping this beautiful buffet and i am going to be giving it a new life it is just a little bit outdated and it has some scratches and some nicks that i am going to get rid of and you know our first step let's remove the hardware this buffet even has that velvety felt lining here on it so you can tell it is truly a buffet when i take off the hardware i go ahead and keep it all in one place i'm actually going to be reusing this hardware it's kind of unique and i'm probably just going to clean it up and maybe even give it a fresh coat of paint but other than that it's going to stay the original hardware so this piece is actually completely solid wood i'm not for sure on the type of what it is but i know it's solid i can tell this actually is veneer here on top but underneath is still even solid wood this is an old buffet but it's in really nice shape i actually got this buffet for only sixty dollars on facebook marketplace so that was a pretty good deal for the shape that this is in and i'm hoping to turn it around and sell it for a pretty good profit maybe listing it maybe listing it at 400 or so so sometimes with older pieces these screws kind of get stuck in there and don't want to turn so what i'll do is i'll just go back with a regular screwdriver and do it a little bit slower with a little bit more muscle so if you don't have a drill you can also use just a regular screwdriver it takes a little bit longer but still totally doable i am not going to touch the insides of these i might put a little bit of furniture salve wax butter on it but other than that just maybe needs to be cleaned but i'm not planning on painting the insides of those and even to the rescue i'm not sure if i'm going to put that little fake key hole back on there if i do then i'll spray paint it to match the hardware if i don't then i'll need to fill these holes so kind of undecided but now we've got gotta clean i'm gonna just be using some super clean it's a degreaser which is something that you really need to make sure is in your cleaner you can use dawn dish soap crud cutter anything like that but super clean i just kind of had on hand we just don't know where it's been and it's has you know it has those dirt and grease and oils from your fingers and that's just going to really not allow that paint to adhere to the surface so we need to clean all that off to give that paint something to grab on to you guys now i've got my trusty two compartment bucket here and on one side i just use this one to clean with the cleaner and then the second side will be clean rinse water i wasn't too sure what i was going to do with this buffet i thought of going blue and then i was just like i've done a lot of blue lately and i was just feeling something else so i actually got some inspiration from another fellow flipper in canada so i will share with you their information in just a little bit but i don't want to give anything away yet so keep watching because this is going to be a wonderful flip so this is um some dirt and oils and stuff but it's also a little bit of coloring from the actual finish of the piece because that degreaser that's a pretty harsh chemical and so it's just going to take off anything that's loose this also tells me that i am going to need to do a primer especially because i am doing a little bit of a lighter color i don't want any of this popping through and then after i sand i'll probably break the finish a bit so we don't want any of that coloring of this dark wood popping through our paint i've gotten a lot of questions you know prime not prime i tell you guys when in doubt prime it out but it's not a hundred percent necessary on every flip as long as you prep correctly meaning you clean like this and you sand scuff sand at least a little bit especially if it's this glossy finish then you should be okay without priming you know primer not only helps the paint adhere though but it also covers that for instead of getting bleed through it would be covered by that primer so you know just leave it up to you but for the most part probably at least 75 of the time i prime so now that we've got everything cleaned we're just going to go ahead and rinse okay so i am ready once this dries i'm probably gonna dry it with my towel but once this dries i am actually going to attempt to do my best to save this top so what i'm going to do is i'm going to be sanding down the veneer on top so with veneer what it is is this little thin layer of wood that goes on top of the other wood and if you come back here you can actually see this one is a little bit tricky but you can actually see that this is a different layer of wood than this little tiny layer here that's the darker so likely this wood is a little bit cheaper wood but this is actual solid wood sometimes it's just plywood under there or even mdf but this i can tell is solid wood but it does have that layer of veneer so with veneer like i said it's really thin so when i'm sanding it down to the raw wood color i am going to need to be very careful that i don't break through that veneer or else we'll have to paint and we won't be able to save it so i'm going to go ahead and sand i don't know how long this top is going to take me but hopefully not too long since i've got my surf prep sander that really cuts that sanding time in half you can use my code fft 10 for 10 off if you guys are interested in grabbing your own surf prep i got that sanding done it probably only took me about a half hour so not too shabby fortunately on the actual top of the surface i did not break through any veneer but then unfortunately down here around the trim there's just a few spots where the veneer kind of got broken down a little bit too much that was even thinner than that top layer but i do have a solution that i am going to actually try and it's actually something that another fellow flipper did and you know it's always great to just utilize your resources so i'm not copying anybody but just to take inspiration from other people so i will show you that in just a little bit and we'll be able to kind of mask that veneer that's missing there and in the meantime though i'm going to go ahead and apply some wood filler because while i was sanding i just noticed a few spots where there were some gashes and i really want this to be a smooth finish when i'm done so i'm going to take some minwax wood filler here and just go ahead and apply that onto the drawers all right i think i got them all and so that's got to dry for a little while and then we'll be able to sand those down and apply some primer our wood filler is all dry and so i'm just going to take a medium fine grit sanding block and go ahead and sand that all smooth you're just filling in some of those little nicks and dents okay now that everything is smoothed out i'm going to go ahead and wipe everything down with a microfiber cloth to get all that dust off because we don't want that around when we go to apply our primer okay so i just gotta remove the drawers and then we'll be ready let's prime so i'm gonna be using gray primer today because that is the color basically that i'm going to be applying so why not get a first coat on there and i'm just using an oval brush to apply it i want to make sure it's not too thick in some places so just going in the same direction evening everything out all righty our primer is on and while that is drying we're going to go ahead and work on the top up here so let me go put this in a bag and i'm going to show you what my plans are to salvage that beautiful raw wood top all right so i'm going to show you guys a technique that i personally have never done before but i saw christina over at pretty distressed do this technique on some of her raw wood tops or even entire dressers and what it is is it's going to be a paint wash or basically staining with paint that's watered down so the first thing that i'm going to do is i'm going to go ahead and pour some water in here and then i am going to just take my brush it's a scarlet brush and i'm just going to go ahead and wet down the whole entire surface okay so now i'm going to take a paint and it's putty so it's a light beige tan color and then i'm gonna go ahead and pour it into my container i don't need too much okay and then i'm also going to pour some water in there because we're doing about one part paint and one part water and so that it's very very watered down you can see it's basically watery paint okay so now we're going to take that same brush and we're going to apply the paint the paint wash onto the surface to kind of dull it down a little bit so the goal is for it to kind of soak into the wood this might be a fail because of these wood colors popping through this red but we'll see if it's a fail then i would say my plan would just be to give it a coat of boss and paint it all the same color so i've got my lint-free cloth here and i'm just going to wipe away the paint and what that's going to do is basically just lighten up that wood tone and make it more cohesive like i said it's a paint wash and it's a stain with paint and water instead of having to do anything with oil-based paints or anything like that and then depending on how dark or light you want it i can do another coat if i feel like it but you just want to make sure you kind of go all the way across that way you've got even streak marks if you see any you just see how that toned down that red color i want to say this was definitely mahogany but i can't be for sure i just don't know wood types yet it's okay that i got some on there i'll just have to paint that over but there we go wow i like that so shout out to christina if you guys don't follow her go over to her channel and subscribe she's got videos every saturday love her content just as well so that's that paint wash so that's just gonna dry just as regular paint and then we'll go ahead and come back with a clear coat just like we would regular paint because we need to have that top coat this is going to be a high traffic area most likely so we've got to have that layer protection so the primer down here is dry so while the top's drying we can go ahead and do a layer of paint on the bottom here but first i want to smooth out that primer to make sure that there's no rough spots and to make sure that my paint is going to go on nice and smooth so i've got an extra fine sanding block here and i'm just going to go ahead and sand down the whole thing the goal here is not to remove any of the paint but simply to smooth it out this is a pretty curvy piece so i'm just gonna get where i can the primer is actually not seeming to be too rough so that makes it really easy to smooth out okay always wipe back the dust before you paint if you don't have a microfiber cloth then something like a really well not really damp but not too wet of a cloth towel could do as well you're just trying to get all that dust away so that it's not going to get caught in your paint all right i'm going to be using driftwood for the base which is kind of a neutral it looks to me like it's got a few green undertones in the gray beige color kind of a grayish i guess you could say so i've never used this one before i'm excited to try it out like i told you guys actually i got inspired by brandon and he also has a youtube channel we will pop it up right here but he did a really similar buffet in a color driftwood by country chic and i've got driftwood by dixie bell so i'm going to try to kind of achieve his look so go check his channel out as well he does amazing furniture art and he is great and he's only 17 years old so the amount of work that he puts into his pieces amazes me and i it's awesome so definitely go check that out i poured a little bit into this container and then i'm just gonna add some water as well you guys know this i love to thin out dixie bells chalk paint and other chalk paints as well it's just a little bit thick for me so i'm not thinning it out as much as i did the wash but i'm just thinning it out enough so that it's going to go on nice and smooth i'm going to be using two different brushes we've got the round small brush and then we've got the scarlet brush both by dixie bell you guys know how much i love these palm handheld brushes definitely recommend and then this one will help me get onto like things like that nice and easy instead of getting it all over the place so let's get started thanks mom watermelon that watermelon is really good even though neiman took half of it but it's a good snack to have in this hot summer days and first coat is all finished up with the driftwood so i like the way that it's actually looking it's a gray but like i said it has like that greenish tannish undertone so i think that that really complements the top really nicely and if you noticed i did have to kind of go back and do a little repair so i'll have to do a little bit more paint wash right there when that when i sand that down and then the hardware i'm going to be working on that next and i'm going to be spray painting that a darker color so that it kind of pops against this lighter neutral color so we're going to let this dry now and then we'll move on to the hardware okay we're ready i got all my hardware laid out here and i'm going to be spray painting it using oil rubbed bronze so it's a darker bronze color and i just want to use this to just make sure that it's defined against that lighter neutral color and you can really spray paint any type of hardware as long as you go back and do a clear coat over the top for that protection you should be good to go i'm gonna do the backs of the handles first and then that way later when they're dry i'll flip them over and come back and do another little layer when you're doing a spray painting with hardware you just want to do light coats and you might need to do more than one but just light coats don't hold it over one area for too long because you want to avoid those drips that should be good for the first coat so we'll let those dry and in the meantime the buffet is ready to have a second coat painted on so we're going to be working in the garage today because it's pretty hot out there that sun is scorching and it's a little bit cooler in the shade so i'm going to grab my fine grit sanding block again to smooth out that first layer of paint and then we'll be ready for coat number two the same as when we smooth out the primer we're not trying to get rid of any of the paint just trying to make sure there's no rough surfaces so there were just a couple of spots that i had filled with some wood filler and the first layer looks like it didn't quite cover this one all the way it was a gouge and sometimes that happens where you'll notice that something needs to be a little bit more filled in after a couple of coats of paint so i'm just going to go ahead and fill that in it'll dry probably by the time i'm done with the first the second coat on the actual buffet base and then we'll just sand it down a little bit and we'll be ready to paint there's just a few little spots like i said i just want this to have like a really seamless look sometimes it depends on what style you're going for on whether or not you want to have these nicks covered or just kind of make it the character of your piece it's all up to you all right and i think that should cover it so that'll dry in no time so remember if you don't want to wash out your brush between coats you can put it inside of a ziploc baggie and that will last for at least a few days so that's what i like to do because i hate washing brushes trying to think of a better way but i'm just going to wet down my surface here again to make it go on nice and smooth and we're using that scarlett brush same as i did yesterday so we got that second coat on the buffet all painted on so i'm just flipping these over getting ready for that other side to get sprayed as well those ones i don't need to flip but i'll probably just do another coat so that'll dry and then we'll do a top coat on that like i said to give that the utmost protection the second coat is all dry so we're gonna go ahead and apply the top coat which is that protective layer and i'm going to be using satin clear coat from dixie bell this actually is becoming one of my favorite because i am really a matte girl i like the flat finish but this satin is it just gives just enough shine where it's not like glossy but it's a little bit shiny and then it also has a little bit more protection than the flat coat might have so we're going to go ahead and apply this to all of the surfaces including the top as well because again that's just a paint wash so that'll be just fine to have the same water-based clear coat applied to the top there when you're doing top coat you can choose what type of brush you want to use i personally have been lately using these more fan style brushes where it kind of opens up i guess you could say and covers a little bit more surface i used to use those foam brushes but i'm just kind of getting away from those as i feel like i have a little bit more control with these but just even strokes thin layers getting all of the coverage and then i just like to kind of go right back over it where i go from one side to the other side all in one direction so that it has that nice finish so like i told you we're gonna be using some top coat here on the hardware so i'm gonna use satin clear and this just is gonna protect everything from that wear and tear alright so we'll just let that dry and then our last little step before putting everything back together is going to be to do that last top coat on the top surface so i'm just going to do even layers across the whole top here and then i'll go down onto the edge as well to get that full coverage okay so all that's got to do is dry here and i might come back and do one more top coat on the top just because you know that's gonna get lots of traffic there um but other than that we're about ready to put everything back together all right i'm about to put the drawers in and then after those get in we'll be able to go ahead and attach all the hardware it's got to go nice and slow when you're putting these drawers in make sure you're not going to hit anything especially around the sides and the bottom everywhere you painted basically remember it's got to have that cure time before it's going to be scratch resistant so this is the time when it's just dry and it's still going to be very easily nicked or scratched so just be really careful or else you'll have to go back and fix okay hardware time i'm gonna go grab it darn i'm gonna have to go back and touch all that up but i had to get that part in there i'm gonna go ahead and do the other door that way i can get that out of the way it happens sometimes got to make sure that you go back and touch different things up hardware is all on and it is looking good if i do say my say myself so say so myself if i do say so myself and i've just got my little micro sander here and it's got really gritty sandpaper on it because this door over here is just catching a little bit when it is going in and i don't want it to later scrape off the paint so i'm just going to go ahead and trim down underneath here i've done this a few times before and shown you guys how you can do that easily and all you're going to do is just take your micro sander and sand down a little bit of layers so this is just kind of like a quality control basically sometimes it's even good to have someone else check it out because maybe you'll look over the mistakes kind of similar to when you're editing or something like that my two quality control checkers are neiman and my mom and they will not let it get past me which is good to have because you know you want your work to stand out and to be good so that then you know word of mouth can help and things like that so just if you find any mistakes go back and fix them it's going to be worth it so we did our quality control check i fixed everything that needed to be fixed and we went ahead and staged it and took some photos now again with staging it's really something that i'm still working on and i think i just need to get a few more props to help me out but all in all simple does it best i have learned you don't have to go all out to stage it but to stage just so that those people who are looking make sure that they can understand and maybe picture in their own house so i took some photos remember you want to make sure to take photos of all the details and the insides of the drawers and everything just give them what they can't see unless they're here give them all the details so when i say details of the photos that you want to be taking you know capture what that hardware looks like open the drawers up and check out the inside so that they can see it's clean open the doors and see that it's clean inside there and how much space it's kind of given them you can see on the side this particular one has dovetailing which means that those parts kind of meet and they intertwine it's a really great sign of quality to have on a piece like this because it just means that it's well made and that it's less likely to come apart and things like that so you always want to look for dovetailing in general i'll go ahead and measure it as well and i'm going to post this on facebook marketplace in order to sell it and i am thinking that since this is a solid solid wood piece like it's heavy um and it's in really nice condition i am thinking that i'm gonna go ahead and list this thing for four hundred and fifty dollars it's a bit high but i think that the right person will come along it's very neutral in color i absolutely love the way that this paint wash came out even after two coats of that top coat it it just came out really nice so we're gonna go ahead and get that listed over on facebook marketplace and we're gonna cross our fingers that we can get our full asking price well as you can clearly see this baby is still here with me it has been listed for just a couple of days over on facebook marketplace at 450 dollars i've had one inquiry and she was serious but then she realized that it was too deep for her area so unfortunately that didn't pan out but i have confidence that this is going to sell buffets are pretty trendy right now and i've been figuring out that a lot of the times my furniture sells better on the weekdays than on the weekends and i thinking that maybe people are at work scrolling through facebook marketplace rather than at home on the weekends they're actually like busy doing things with family that's my hypothesis i don't know what do you guys think do your guys's pieces sell more on the weekends do your guys's piece sell more during the week i'm curious because for me i would definitely say weekdays i don't know anyway we're gonna leave it listed on facebook marketplace for 450 dollars for at least a few more days probably at least another week and we might even be taking this one over to the habitat restore they have that market over there that i've had a couple of pieces in and i think that this one would be a great contender over there i just want to give one last shout out to christina for the paint wash solution i've seen her do it in a couple of videos and i was excited to try it out on here to just dampen down that reddish wood top on here and then of course brandon he actually is in canada you guys i told you he's just 17. he does an amazing job with furniture restoration and repainting things we've got a video on thursday that you are not going to want to miss so if you're not already get subscribed down below you guys have been waiting for this probably since right around the time that i started this youtube channel i'm not going to give you any hints you just need to get subscribed down below so that you are ready for thursday's video if you think you know what it is let me down down in the comments i don't know if any of you are going to get it though we'll see anyway i hope you guys enjoyed some new methods of how to flip your furniture thank you guys so much for watching and i'll see you on the flip side you

Channel: Furniture Flipping Teacher

Views: 21,896

Rating: 4.9665504 out of 5

Keywords: furniture flipping for profit, furniture flip, diy, diy furniture flip, student loan debt, teacher, mid century modern furniture, vintage furniture, retro furniture, farmhouse furniture, staging furniture, at home furniture flipping, side hustle, thrift for profit, resell furniture, repurpose for profit, mcm, furniture flipping tips, furniture, furniture makeover, furniture painting, furniture flipping ideas, furniture flipping before and after, flipping furniture for beginners

Id: xgkIzuzBN9U

Length: 34min 11sec (2051 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 07 2021