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Vintage Vanity Post Updated 3-29-18:     Every once in a while, I’ll get an email from someone who’d like to know if we’re interested in a piece of furniture.  This happened a while back and I was super excited when I saw the pictures of  a charming vintage vanity.  To read all about this transformation click here

Here’s what she looked like when we picked her up.

I was deliberately hunting for something like this at The World’s Longest Yard Sale several years ago but came home empty handed so I was geeked to score this piece.    With all her beautiful features, she would have looked awesome in any color but I had to decide.

The bottom of the mirror had aged so gracefully.  Typically, that sort of thing would drive me bonkers and I would have re-glassed it but tons of people commented how cool the affect was and challenged me to sell it the way it was.  I agreed to run with it and actually play it up a little.  After all, it wasn’t all funky on the main part of the mirror you look through, just a worn and weathered edge towards the bottom.   I decided to go with a classic color called Limoges by American Paint Company.

 

Limoges is the color of bone china.  It’s very rich, almost the color you’d imagine if you ground oatmeal up into a flour and mixed it with milk, lol.   Please tell me I’m not the only one who see’s every day items as paint colors, lol.

As much as I love the color and the piece, it just wasn’t enough.  I needed to anchor it but I wasn’t really sure how.  I stood back looking at the piece and decided what I really wanted to draw attention to was the  gorgeous.  I mixed up a custom slate brown color  for the mirror’s frame (I painted this was prior to APC having Gun Powder.  If I were to replicate this same piece today, I’d use Gun Powder).   I used this color around the mirror, legs and on tops of the two sides.    I waxed all dark areas with American Paint Company’s Dark Wax.   It’s a beautiful, warm, rich espresso brown dark wax.

While the wax was still wet (immediately after applying it) I dipped my finger into some Copper and Pewter Mica Powders and rubbed it over the dark waxed areas.

It’s SO easy to do this!  I love showing our students this little tip at our workshops!

I struggled on which parts to distress on this one because there were so many different parts I could have played up.  No matter what I did, I didn’t like it so I handed the damp rag over to Cathy to do her thing.  She’s so much better at distressing than I am.  I tend to be way too conservative and it just wasn’t working this time.  I was farting around with different options below to figure out which direction to go.

 

Here’s the finished transformation!!  

 

 

Are YOU Ready to Shizzle it?  

 

  A hui hou kau kou!

Shelly

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