The "I'm so fancy" makeup vanity

You may remember from an earlier post that I picked up a gem of a vanity off Kijiji. It was everything I wanted, except, in the photo I saw, the desk looked white, and pristine.

Tee hee hee, I'm actually yellow

Okay, minor setback, but I was prepared for this. I started this blog because I'm going to update all my furniture to match, and look sophisticated and mature, unlike the hodgepodge apartment I live in now.

I got to work sanding with 120 grit sand paper. Side note, I need to wear gloves to do this because touching sandpaper might be one of the grossest feelings ever. Just thinking about it gives me goosebumps.

Oh, did I mention that I have been living the life of luxury, as I've had the freedom of my dad's woodworking shop to do all this in. Need a screwdriver? We have 30!

The gourmet's work station

I primed the entire desk with this stuff:

To confirm, it's good stuff

I removed the hardware from the drawers as well to ensure perfect coverage.

Looks like it's smiling with a monocle

As with all projects, I hit a snag in the road. I wanted to fill all the detail lines with silver paint to really bring them out, but I do not have surgeon-steady hands and none of my surgeon friends accepted an invitation to the cottage to refinish furniture. It ended up looking like I was painting these drawers on top of the dryer with a cycle of soccer cleats in, and it took a lot of work to correct all the mistakes once it dried.

Also, you can tell I am an amateur. I'm sure there is a name for when the wood has those detailed lines in them but I have no idea what it is and don't even know where to begin with Google to find it.

So, after silvering (and then cleaning up) the detail on the drawers only, I decided to give up on that dream and leave the rest in my light grey paint.

I'm so beautiful

Onto the fun part, the hardware!

The old handles were a green, "I'm 100 years old and poorly maintained" colour. I had the idea to use a silver chrome spray paint to make them almost mirror-like.

First, I spray painted them with a gold metallic to give the base an even, warm-toned colour. I'm not sure this actually had any effect on the finished product.

Secondly, I spray painted them all over with the silver chrome, which looked awesome immediately.

Some tips on spray painting:

1. Do this in a well-ventilated area. I picked the outdoors in cottage country. I think there's lots of oxygen there.

2. Find a good surface to do this, where your pieces are kind of raised so you can get to all angles. I turned a recycling bin upside down and covered with the plastic bag I left the hardware store with when I purchased the spray paint.

3. Shake for like 2 minutes. It's the longest 2 minutes of your life.

4. Get a painting mask so you aren't breathing in the fumes. Unless you're into that. *until I get bored does not condone this. Also, get gloves.

5. Spray away from the hardware for like 3 seconds so you have a good stream coming out that is even.

6. Spray that ish from every angle; leave no crevice uncovered. I did a complete 360 around the recycling bin to ensure everything was thoroughly covered.

7. Let dry for like an hour. I don't know, I left it over night, but I bet an hour is good enough.

So in the end, they turned out like this:

Hey everyone, come see how good I look

Seriously, you would pay to own this, wouldn't you?! (If the answer is no, please skip to the next question).

This piece isn't totally done. I hate the laminate on top of the desk,  but I didn't want to paint it grey because it won't be a very nice surface to do makeup on. Instead, I'm calling around to all custom glass and mirror shops in Toronto to see if they will cut me a piece of mirror with one scalloped edge. So far one company has said no, so if any readers have people in the mirror industry, send them my way!

- Until I get bored