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Vanity Revamp





Just a normal Saturday morning, having a garage sale at a friends house. She's selling off all her furniture preparing for a cross country move. The gentleman who decided to buy her couch already had a vanity in the back of their truck. It was ugly shiny black, but it had good bones. I could already imagine how beautiful it could be. As I'm drooling over the vanity, one of the guys says I can have it since they can't fit it back in the truck with the couch. SCORE!! So this is what I brought home... 


It was very poorly painted and a bit wobbly, but I figured it would be a quick easy project! And that was my first mistake! Once I got it home I quickly realized there were more than a few coats of paint. First there were at least 4 very poorly done layers of slick shiny black latex paint, under that was what looked like someone's attempt at light blue/beige distressed/shabby chic, then we had white  all on top of a beautiful light wood...
The legs were pretty easy get clean. Although i soon found out all the paint was what was holding on the legs, so those needed repair. Most of the paint peeled off the legs, the rest came off easily with 1 round of paint stripper. I did all the legs first and had decided to just strip it all and put a clear coat over the natural color. Those plans were shattered once I started working on the top. The many many layers of paint were hiding the torture someone had done to this poor innocent piece of furniture. I didn't take a picture, but just imagine the once beautiful smooth top, beaten with a pick axe, then very sloppily patched with wood putty, not sanded down and left lumpy. That's what I had. And since the top was a piece of wood veneer and not a solid piece I couldn't just keep sanding it down. So I decided I could easily fix it myself. Haha there I go again with that 'easy' word. So I found a small, thin piece that was about the right size. I believe it was intended for the ends of cabinets, but it would work right? Now this whole process would have been super simple if I had a saw, of any kind... So I traced the top of the vanity and began a not so fun game of connect the dots with my drill! I looked ridiculous, my husband made fun of me, but it worked! I got it down enough so I could just take my sander to smooth it and even it out. I glued that puppy down and voila! I decided to use a darker stain to help hide all the imperfections still visible. 
Then I decided to go a little crazy with the drawer :) 
Painted the drawer pink and added some scrapbook paper to the bottom. Have it a few good layers of my homemade 'modge podge'. Found some super cute knobs at Hobby Lobby and it was FINALLY done!
Not perfect, but for my first major project, I'm pretty proud!

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