The Day I Painted Elizabeth Sullivan's Buffet

 

In March of 2018 I lived in Fort Worth, Texas. I drove by a local estate sale, and within the first few minutes, I realized I was in the home of a local celebrity. Elizabeth Sullivan had been on TV several years before, featured for being 104 years old and crediting her longevity to drinking three Dr. Peppers a day. The mantel had several framed news articles about her, and the home still had remnants of her life- pieces of furniture, Christmas decorations, old cookie tins, and random linens. She had been a teacher, had a driver's license until she was 103, and had passed away at the age of 106. This woman lived independently until she passed away. She was my hero! We were getting ready to buy our first house, so I bought Elizabeth's buffet, excited to paint it and use it in my new house.

It sat in that house in Joshua, Texas, right underneath our TV for the two and a half years that we lived there. It never got painted. My children pulled several of the handles off. They would hide inside the end cabinets, delighted that they could fit inside if they pulled out the inside shelving. Occasionally they would ram toy cars and trucks into the edges. This furniture took a beating in that house. Because it was prominently placed in my living room, most of the pictures and videos I have of my kids from this house include this buffet. 

We moved into an apartment in Georgia in January of 2021, and the beaten-up buffet went with us. In those first few months in Georgia, I got inspired and began some home improvement projects. I built shelving in one of our closets. I sanded and painted some old tables to put in our bedroom. And I sanded and primed the buffet. It was ready to be painted! And then we bought a house.

The primed buffet moved with us into the new house. I knew I didn't have time to paint it right away, and so I used it as it was.  I set it up with lamps and photo frames, confident that I'd get around to painting it at some point. Eventually I bought a couple of paint samples. and I even painted squares on top of it, trying to decide which color to paint it. People have asked about the buffet, "Oh, are you in the process of redoing this?" And I always laugh and tell them the story of how it's been a work in progress for years. 

Throughout my procrastination process, Jake would gently nudge me to just get rid of it. We could buy something new, he'd say. And I'd consider it. But new stuff was expensive, and this furniture had a story! It was connected to a really incredible woman who had lived a lovely, long life. It was the thing I loved most about buying things from estate sales. Everything has a history!

Yesterday was my day off. Jake and I went to Home Depot, and we bought some paint in a lovely gray-green color. I got home, set up my work area, and Ella and I got to work. Side note: If you have a job that requires hard work, Ella is an excellent helper. She is not afraid of work. It's one of my favorite things about her. We cleaned and sanded and painted until bedtime. Today I touched up our paint job, and I added gold handles that I have been storing for over two years. And the result is beautiful. I should probably not be proud of myself. What could have taken me 36ish hours took me almost 5 years. But it's done. It's ready to display whatever needs displaying and to store whatever needs storing. 

I feel like I need to go out and get a Dr. Pepper to celebrate. We did it, Elizabeth. We did it.