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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what king of wax did you use on the white part.
Hi Becky, I used American Paint Company’s White Wax on this piece. You can see it here.
I just used Clear Wax.
Clear Wax