Antique Vanity and Gentleman’s Chest in ASCP

23 Oct Antique Vanity and Gentleman’s Chest in ASCP

I’ve been told many times throughout my lifetime that I’m “visual”.  Whether its the topography blueprint of a golf course or a dated piece of furniture,  I can see the finished design well in the initial stages of a project.
There are moments though when I get hung up on color.   This happened recently with a bedroom set I picked up to refinish.  I knew I wanted to strip and refinish the tops in a rich espresso stain, but I visualized the gentleman’s dresser in a dark Graphite, while I saw the vanity in Old White.  When I mentioned this idea to someone, I was told “you can’t do that!”  I can’t?

As I stripped layers of paint from the top of the vanity, dresser and bed frame, I discovered the beautiful mahogany hidden underneath.    This is a VERY MESSY process, but well worth the effort.

The next step was removing all the contact paper and cleaning all the drawers.   Oh my gosh this stuff has staying power!

When I was exhausted from battling the contact paper, I started messing around with paint colors.  Paris Grey?  Versailles? Country Grey?

Nope!  Just wasn’t working for me.  Ah, what the heck, it’s just Chalk Paint – ha!

I have a confession to make.  I don’t like pastels – gasp!  I decided on Paris Grey but planned to darken the color using my Annie Sloan Dark Wax.  I was having a REALLY hard time it sticking and glopping and ended up with a disaster, so I painted over it and started again.

Quite honestly, I’ve battled her dark wax from the day I got it four months ago.  I kept trying it OVER and OVER and OVER again with the same frustration, wondering what the heck I wasn’t getting.  Then, last week my sister came over with her AS dark wax and I couldn’t believe the difference!  I was like “what?”  I was like “huh?”
Her wax is an entirely different consistency than the wax I received.  I’m guessing it was either a bad batch it melted in the delivery truck or something, but it was just wrong!  My wax was thick and gummy and almost crystallized from the get go.  I also bought one thing of clear wax that was fine, but the inside of the lid was covered with what appears to be rust.  Bottom line, check it out!  They’re not supposed to be that way.

I had worked myself into a tizzy with the dark wax, so I opted to glaze the paint with a stain then finished it with clear wax.  Now that’s what I’m talking about!

And, after a long battle… this is what I ended up with:)


Next, comes the vanity…  I stuck to my original thought of a different, yet coordinating combination.



And just in case  you want to see the color by sunset…

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