Yes I Painted Laminate Furniture

I seem to be paying a lot of attention to my living room lately. With the new silver dresser in the front of the space, I’m all about sprucing up that side of the house since we spend so much time there.When I finish a project I tend to stare at it for a long while. Again and again I wander into the room and just look it over. Then I stare at the space all around the new furniture/wall hanging/whatever-I-newly-did-somewhere and think of what I’ll do next. Do you do this?

My husband knows it too. We can be sitting calmly on the couch and he’ll see my eyes drift away and will exclaim “I can see the wheels turning, what are you thinking?”

He knows me so well 🙂

On one of my staring bouts I spied this corner of the living room which has gotten no love at all since we moved in.

The table has since moved into the foyer but it’s a sorry corner no less. Those sad small cubes, the lack of attention to the nine foot ceiling, not to mention the total absence of curtains {next project as soon as I can find a 130 inch curtain rod!}.

The longer I stared, I realized what I had to do ~ a little furniture rearranging! The easiest and most affordable {free} way to decorate your house. I had just the piece for the space.

This once fake wood laminate cabinet that my mom let me have when we moved in. What was I going to do with it? Paint it!

Yes I painted laminate furniture. It’s really not much different than painting other pieces, you sand, prime and give it your favorite color. In this case, Chinchilla by Martha Stewart which is the color of our kitchen. I’m such a paint re-user.

And just like that my staring at a blank wall has paid off, we moved it from the basement up to the living room to be our bar.

It has the perfect amount of storage for all our favorite cocktail mixes and glasses. Some of these had been in storage since my husband and I moved in together while we were engaged three years ago.

Apparently I have to touch up the ceiling inside there huh. The only defect I’ve seen yet on it.

And underneath goes all the leftovers you don’t want anybody to see. Notice my little margarita salt container and mix, a favorite drink for the summer!

For easy reach we put out the drinks and accessories.

The basket is from our honeymoon in the Bahamas. And the little red Buddha was left here by the previous owner. We think it’s funny so the Buddha lives at the bar 🙂

And there we have it, a nice place for some entertaining when guests come over and all of our bar ware finally in one place. I’m thinking of painting the inside back of the top part a different color, I’m thinking black but am not sure yet. Should I jazz it up a bit, give it some contrast in there?

Cocktails anyone? Cheers!

*Update* I’ve since moved the bar into the dining room, and backed the bar shelves with marble paper, come see all the details here.