Vintage Vanity

A neighbor of mine, Miss L, asked me if I would re-finish this GORGEOUS vanity for her daughter.
Um, OF COURSE! This vanity was just stunning so I was honored that she asked me to work on this lovely little thing! The details are just lovely.

 

 

I sanded her down and did a coat of primer. Because of the age it was very likely that there would have been bleed through staining so by doing a coat primer first, it would help to keep that from happening. then I did 3 light coats of latex paint with my paint sprayer. Then its time for the fun part! DISTRESSING! I lightly distressed the edges and detail, which I think brings those details out more then if left untouched. 3 coats of poly and she is ready to go!

 

 

 

As I was working on it, I couldn't help but think of all the stories this little vanity was apart of.  I could totally picture it in a scene from Downton Abbey and thought about how much juicy gossip must have been shared while sitting at this vanity getting ready for a dinner party.

 

What do you think!? I absolutely love how it turned out! It now sits in a cute teenagers room adding more stories, I am sure, to its vault!

PRODUCT LIST :* Kilz Primer
* Glidden base paint - no color added
* Varathane Water Based Heavy Duty Polyurathane

 

 

Welcome!

Hi everyone! And WELCOME to my first blog post! EEEEK! I cant believe I am adding another thing to my plate! But here we are! A lot of you have asked for info on the products I use, different techniques used on certain pieces, tips and detailed before and afters. I have found FB to be a hard place to do all of that and knew I needed a different avenue but hesitated because I feel so stretched as it is, I am NOT, I repeat, I am NOT a writer!! plus it is hard to open myself up knowing there will be criticism and there are some mean people out there, and if I am being real here, that scares me. But the time has finally come that in order for us to grow it must me done ;) I know I say it a lot but I am truly grateful to YOU! you make if possible for me to work from home doing something I LOVE and it would not at all be possible if it wasn't for my amazing followers and clients.  So THANK YOU!

OK so to start things off, I decided to do my latest project since it is fresh in my mind ;)

So this little lady was off to the dump and I just had to rescue her! I mean, come on, how can you resist those darling sliding shutter doors!? My original plan was to do Sherwin Williams White Raisin, AKA the PERFECT yellow! But as the months went by she kept getting pushed to the side while my attention was on custom projects.  Well little lady your time has arrived! I had some  Rustoleum Metalic Gold spray paint left over from another project and thought I would spray this pretty little thang down.( SIDENOTE I LOVE this gold spray paint! it actually goes on pretty even and lasted longer then I expected! PLUS right!?) I gave her a quick sand and started in with the gold. Well me and spray paint have a love hate relationship and this time it was leaning more to the hate side. So I whipped up some of my DIY chalk paint and painted her white, but I did leave the inside gold, just for fun!  A little sanding here and a little distressing there and I was in love! Gold and turquois (the original color) showing through and I was smitten! It turned out better then I thought it would. Plus I had the perfect little blue knobs to finish her off. SHHHHHH don't tell my DS that I used his knobs he picked out for his nightstand! ;)  I topped it all off with 2 coats of wax.  Yes folks, I. Said. Wax! That story is for another post another day, BUT You have asked for wax so I am delivering.  sorry for the grainy pics but she is now sold so they will have to do.

Here she is before getting a pretty makeover

and here she is after!

 

PRODUCTS USED :

Sand paper

Rustoleum Metallic Gold spray paint

My own DIY chalk paint

Glidden white base paint (ie no color was added)

Minwax finishing wax

Corkboard Makeover

So this is my FIRST tutorial, so be kind :) Plus I am watching Once Upon a Time while I write this, anyone else LOVE that show!!?? Anyway because it is my first, I decided to go EASY! And what is easier then a corkboard makeover!? I have had this corkboard for forever and knew that someday it would be needed and that someday I would make it "fancy" (that is what my kids call every upcycle, craft, you name it!) Well that someday was finally here. I am in the process of FINALLY organizing and decorating my office/craft room/homeschool room. While the corkboard isn't necessarily  hideous, it just wasn't my style.

So off to the craft store I went to pick out some fabric. I starched and ironed out my fabric, while the starch isn't necessary, I find it helpful as it stiffens the material and makes its easier to work with. I cut the fabric a few inches bigger to leave room to work with and glue down on the backside. I didn't measure before I went to the store, so I got extra just in case, therefore I needed to cut it out.

Once I had the fabric all cut out, I used a spray adhesive. Obviously I am not paid to endorse any products so this is completely my unbiased opinion..... I LOVE Elmers Craft Bond spray adhesive! It was super tacky yet I was also able to peel the fabric up and reposition if I needed too. It was so adhesive I had to SCRUB my hands a few times to get it all off! Yep I am SOLD! Ok back to the tutorial ;) There is some overspray so make sure to have something underneath with SEVERAL extra inches or go outside, just know there is overspray and again this stuff is tacky!   So you don't want it on your carpet , counter, table, you get the picture. I worked in about 4 inch sections so I could make sure it was even and smooth out any wrinkles.

 

I made sure it was all smoothed out and that it was "crisp" along all the edges because I am going to use thumbtacks around the edge and I didn't want the fabric to not lay smooth, if that makes sense?

 

Now onto the fun stuff! I used good ol thumbtacks and pushed them in around the edge of the corkboard. I wanted to do some cool design but I was in a hurry and just wanted to get it done, plus after you push in a hundred or so thumbtacks your thumb starts to hurt ;) I am a bit OCD on thngs being just so and even so I drew a line in pencil from edge to edge to that they are straight. then I measure out the spacing and made marks for those. Granted it is still not perfect, but it could have been much worse and from a distance you can hardly tell

 

Once all my thumbtacks are in place, I used the spray adhesive and sprayed the edges and smoothed the fabric over the edge. then spray along one side on the back and smooth the fabric down and repeat on all 4 sides on the back. Your fabric should stay just fine with the spray adhesive, but I am overly cautious, so I added a thumbtack in each corner and 2 along each edge. And WALAAA! your new corkboard is all "fancied" up and ready to pin those important notes, reminders, pictures or whatever else you want!

 

Hope this inspires you to transform something in your home that will make you smile! I am so excited to get this hung and start using it! Whatta think?

COST BREAKDOWN :

Corkboard - free
Fabric - $7 (it would have been cheaper if I measured before hand)
Pushpins - $3.76 (I used one pkg of 188 and a small amount from another pkg)
Spray Adhesive - $2