- Melissa Geskie
Vanity Makeover in Teal and Whimsy
My little girl is now 10 years old and has decided that pink, Barbies and little girl rooms are not cool. Big sigh..... We have decided to let her choose her room color and do a makeover! This means I am painting furniture to keep for her. She's very hard to impress so this was a big challenge. I kept the whole thing a big surprise and painted in the shed so she wouldn't see. To start the makeover rolling along we decided to switch out her desk. I had a pedestal style desk in the shed, and I knew it would make a perfect vanity that could also work as a desk. Her colors? Why teal, gold with black and white stripes of course!
To begin the desk needed some small repair work, I filled missing veneer and added a IOD mould in the shape of a keyhole to accent the middle drawer. Using a small mould is a easy way to add texture and whimsy to a piece.
I used No Pain Gel Stain in Espresso and wiped it onto the top. Using gel stain is a great time saver. The wood just needs to be sanded slightly and cleaned. You then are able to wipe on the gel stain and cover the wood. No sanding to bare wood is nessesary! I like to use two coats of Espresso to give the wood a deep rich color. See this video here to see gel stain being applied.
When it dried I used Gator Hide to seal the top so that the desk would be protected from spills and daily use.
I painted the base of the desk in a beautiful teal blue. I used Dixie Belle Mermaid Tail. I used two coats to cover all the wood, the paint coverage is amazing and I am always surprised at how little amount of paint is used!
The middle drawer and sides of the desk were painted in Fluff. After this dried I taped off with blue painters tape in equal stripes. A easy trick when painting stripes is to paint on another coat of the original color to seal the tape edges. This prevents bleed though when you apply the black Caviar. Using the black and white paint I created stripes to add a Mad Hatter feel to the vanity. Before peeling back the tape to reveal the stripes I used Warm Gold Gilding wax. I used a small brush to blend in the gold at the top and bottom. I also used the gold gilding on the edges of the Mermaid Tail to add shimmer and shine.
The base of the vanity was protected with clear wax. I also used Dixie Belle Best Dang Wax in black to accent and age the edges.
The original hardware was spray painted in Gold and reinstalled. I also painted a chair to match the desk. Mermaid Tail, along with a new faux fur seat recovered finished off the job.
My girl was so happy to find out that this was her new vanity! She said that I did a really good job...….insert lol and eye rolling emoji face here.
Now if we could just get the rest of the room painted, anyone want to help?
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