You may recall that I purchased a couple of vintage French Provincial pieces a while back that I had said I wanted to restore and use for makeup storage. I found all but one of these items on Craigslist for a fairly decent price, and I thought that I would share what I did to make them pretty again and how much it cost me out of pocket.
I have drawn inspiration from a couple of different places, but there are two main sources that inspired my color choices, the first oddly enough is my all time favorite piece of art The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli (you know, the one with the naked lady floating on a seashell). I adore the dreamy qualities of this piece and the lovely serene shades of aqua blue. I actually have a print hanging in my home in honor of my time spent in Italy and seeing the real thing in person. While Googling vintage vanities, I stumbled across the following photo from the blog http://livingbeautifullydiy.blogspot.com/2012/01/vanity-reveal.html and knew that this is exactly what I wanted. A gorgeous crisp white vanity with an aquamarine chair and matching accents.
-- Now, just a little disclaimer: I am not a professional when it comes to painting. In fact, I have never painted or attempted to restore anything before in my entire life. I did quite a lot of research via Google and several DIY blogs on different techniques and advice. I am perfectly happy with my perfectly imperfect results. At the end of the day, that is all that really matters to me since they are for my own personal use. If you disagree with anything that I have written below, I absolutely welcome your advice and/or comments, but please keep in mind that I am not a professional.
The first piece that I started with was the first piece that I purchased. I found my vanity desk from a local seller on Craigslist who sold it for $65. It was in very good condition with only a few minor dents and scratches. I first washed it all down with a damp cloth and a 50/50 mixture of vinegar and water. Because this piece is laminate, I was too nervous to fully sand it down and start from scratch. I chose instead to use two coats of primer and then go from there praying that the paint wouldn't bubble up from the laminate. On a sunny Friday afternoon, my sweet Olivia and I spent a few hours gently sanding down the scratches and then priming the desk and drawers. I decided to paint the inside of the drawers as well to make the piece look more finished and put together. I left everything to "cure" overnight after the second coat, and then did two coats of paint the next day. The technique that I found worked best for me as a paint newbie was to use a 1.5 inch angled brush followed by smoothing everything out with a small paint roller. I found that using these two together offered the best application and looked a bit more like a professional paint job.
The original hardware is gorgeous and truly vintage looking, but they looked pretty dingy with many layers of dust and years worth of tarnish. To make them look new again, I washed them first with soap and warm water and then spray painted them silver with Rustoleum Bright Coat. I adore the silver finish and feel that it really adds an extra bit of something special to an already wonderfully charming piece.
My last step before putting everything back together, was applying a thin coat of Polycrylic gloss to the desk once the paint was dry to seal everything in. My plan in the next week or two is to have a piece of plexiglass cut to put on the top of the vanity to protect it from daily wear and stains. For my friends in the States, Lowe's will cut plexiglass to your specifications.
Et voila! This vintage beauty is complete, and I absolutely love how it turned out.
2
Needing a little break from the hard stuff, I moved on to the chair next. I found this chair at a local antique store and paid $48 for it. This was a lot more than I was wanting to spend for a chair. But considering a brand new generic chair at Ikea starts around the same price, and the roses on the top of this little beauty are what make this piece so pretty and unique. Well, it wasn't a hard decision to slap down my credit card and make her my own.
I removed the chair pad which was attached to the chair underneath by 4 screws, easy peasy. I started out by priming the chair with two coats of spray primer allowing the first to dry before I applied the 2nd coat. I then applied my favorite color of paint of all time - Benjamin Moore's Palladium Blue which is a gorgeous aquamarine blue. Such a beautifully soft and pretty color that looks amazing as an accent against the bright white of the vanity. I had a little mishap in that I had bought what I thought was a clear gloss spray paint to preserve the paint job. Once the Palladium Blue was dry, I shook up the can and sprayed the top of the chair to be immediately horrified that the can I thought was clear spray paint and in the slot at the store for clear spray paint, it was BROWN! Ugh! Always check your products people, don't be an idiot like myself. Thankfully, my honey had some clear gloss spray paint in his stash of paint supplies.
Because the Palladium Blue was inspired by a Renaissance painting, I wanted a fabric for the chair pad that had that same Renaissance feel. I found a gorgeous pattern at my local JoAnn's which matches both the soft aqua color and the look I was going for. I wasn't initially intending on using a plastic over the top as that just seems a tad bit tacky, but the fabric itself felt pretty delicate and once cut it instantly started to fray. I knew that with a toddler at home, it would need some kind of protection, and the plastic also allows for easy clean up in case of a makeup spill.
The original fabric was held down by tack nails, I chose to remove those and use a staple gun which was done by my lovely honey. It is the easiest thing in the world to recover a chair pad, just flip the fabric upside down, place your pad in the center, pull the fabric around the pad as tight as possible and either staple or use little nails until it's secure.
The mirror was next, and it literally took only a few minutes to refurbish. I paid not one cent for this pretty little mirror, it was kindly included in the purchase of the lingerie chest below. I had been looking for something like this, but didn't want to pay the high price that most sellers on Craigslist in my area were asking for. It isn't in the most amazing condition, but it serves the purpose of what I am looking for. Again, my lovely honey took over for me and taped off the actual mirror itself since I was too nervous to try it myself for fear that paint would leach through underneath. Once he was done, I literally spray painted the entire thing until no gold was showing and allowed it to dry. Done! Because this had a few fine cracks in the frame itself from age, the spray paint has cracked as well. Again, I'm okay with that but for someone else, you might want to gently sand it down first to get rid of any cracks.
The most labor intensive piece was the lingerie chest. As much as I enjoyed working on the other three pieces, I was not at all looking forward to tackling the chest. It was in MUCH worse condition than any of the other pieces, it was filthy dirty and the hardware wasn't able to be removed. Like the vanity, I started by washing it down completely with a 50/50 mixture of vinegar and water. I then applied two thick coats of primer. The chest had a lot of scrapes and scratches, I had tried to smooth then out with some gentle sanding which helped, but they still were pretty difficult to fully cover with the primer. Like the desk, I followed the primer with two coats of paint and a polycrylic topcoat once it was dry.
The most frustrating part about the chest was that the hardware couldn't be removed. I had to paint over all of the handles which resulted in thick, gloopy areas. I tried to use my paint roller to smooth everything out as best that I could, but it's not as even as I would like. I sprayed some of the Rustoleum Bright Coat into a plastic cup and hand painted the hardware to match the vanity desk. Again, it's not as smooth and even as I would like, but anything is better than what it was originally. I was literally running out of time when I finally got to hand painting the hardware. In putting everything back together, I noticed that I've missed a few spots. I intend to touch up the drawers on the next sunny weekend that we have. Nobody but me will ever notice, but it's those little things that annoy me.
And that's it! My beautiful French Provincial pieces are now finished and look amazing. I have ordered a couple of new pretties to put on the desk and chest which haven't arrived yet, I will wait to introduce those on my Instagram page. My favorite types of YouTube videos and blog posts are Makeup Storage ones, not so much because I care what other people have makeup wise (although I am nosy), but because it gives me ideas for my own storage needs. I will be putting together another post soon of what's in the drawers and how I store everything soon.
I've definitely been bitten by the DIY bug, and I can't wait to do some other projects over the next couple of months. I will be sure to share what I come up with next. I hope that maybe you found a bit of inspiration to do some fun do it yourself projects.
-- Supplies Used --
Zinsser Quart Interior Latex Primer $9.47
Valspar Ultra White Semi Gloss Paint $12.98
Miniwax Polycrylic $8.98
Rustoleum Silver Bright Coat Spray Paint $3.37
Kilz Complete Primer Spray $5.97
Benjamin Moore Palladium Blue Paint Sample $4.99
Rustoleum Clear Gloss Spray Paint (already had from a former project)
Rustoleum Spray Paint Blossom White $3.37
Chair pad fabric $13.98 for one yard
Chair pad plastic $3.34 for one yard
Complete total out of pocket: $274.36
** I chose not to negotiate on the prices for the Craigslist items I purchased because I'm never comfortable doing that. I probably could have knocked off quite a bit if I had, especially for the lingerie chest. So keep that in mind if you decide to go treasure hunting.
