Honestly I feel like with this project I finally made some kind of progress with the apartment. The little details always make a difference but sometimes you need something really big to show the progress properly. I hate working for a long time and not being able to see results, that’s why I can never stick to one craft at a time I just get bored too easily.
So this vanity is both my most loved and least favorite piece of furniture in the house. I loved it enough to drag it down from Brisbane and I hate it because it doesn’t look good with the style of apartment and it really darkens up the room.
Also after a few days of use it looks like this…
Well realistically it looks more like this…Honestly I’m one of those people who can’t keep things neat unless there is an exact system to do so >_<
How can I keep stuff clean?
Wipe off bench top
Everything needs a home
DIY Ideas!
Paint table white
Cover guitar case
Make box for camera
Better lighting set up
Storage for back drop
Bin for rubbish.
LET’S DO IT!
So problem number 1 is that it’s dark wood. I love dark wood but it’s just not good for this house where everything is light and white. I previously covered the stool with pink leopard print so it seemed fitting to paint all of the wooden parts white.
I chose to do this with acrylic paint because:
I can paint indoors without killing myself with fumes
I can easily remove it when we move and I want the dark wood again
It’s cheap as hell, you can get huge bottles for $2 at craft stores or junk stores
Diary entry:
Le Fancy Stool!
We started with this… I removed the seat and covered it with awesome.
Fancy level 20%
That left us with this. Not bad but so dark!
Fancy level 50%
So I painted it with acrylic  and gave a top coat of watery PVA.
And we have this…
Fancy level 90%
Winner!!
I tested it out on the stool first in case it ended up sucking 😀
It took a couple of coats to get a nice finish. I began painting without bothering to remove the seat part so I wouldn’t get paint on the floor but after doing most of the top I removed it to get closer to the edges.
Eventually it started look good 😀 I used a sponge for an even finish.
When I had the finish that I wanted I mixed some PVA glue with water to create a wash. I painted over the whole thing with it. The reason for this is to protect the paint and make it more durable. It also gives a slightly shiny finish to it.
Taadaaaaa 😀
So with the test run complete I moved on to the actual vanity 😀
Beauty!
The current beauty set up is messy and awkward
I was extremely dirty from all of the make up and dust floating around so step one was to clean it up.
Next was removing all of the pieces I could without damaging it.
A couple of coats of paint later and I was well on the way to a nice vanity! I added a pink doily to see if I liked it at this point too.
I painted the other parts too including the mirror. I masked it off with tape first to make sure the mirror wasn’t damaged.
The round parts were the most irritating to get smooth.
Ok so I wanted to make this nice and durable and to be able to clean it easily and not stress about spilling make up on it. The solution? Book covering contact!
I decided that I liked the pink doily so I glued it down.
I cut out the length I needed.
The little grids made it nice and easy to line things up.
I cut out tabs so it could go around the top part.
Then I slowly pulled out the paper and smoothed it all down.
When it got to the heart I made sure to smooth out all of the little bubbles as I went. It was very irritating to get right!
Looking good!
Aaaad all put together!
Getting there but not quiiiite what I wanted..
So I covered James’ guitar case with some nice fabric XD
Sorry James… well not really sorry XD
Putting things back in I was more careful with organisation and making sure that I had things I used often at hand and packing up other things I used less often. Win! I still haven’t organised the stuff on the far left pink shelves because they are going to be folded and stored away soon but everything is coming along 😀
James’ guitar case becomes a nice shelf for hair products. I don’t know how I managed to buy only pink hair products, clearly it’s ingrained deeply in my subconscious haha!
This is my set up for filming videos, lots and lots of lighting but it also means I can’t see the big mirror so I had to add a second smaller mirror angled so I can see.
I have a silicone pot mat to keep my straightener on and everything has a space to stay in, there’s even a heart container to dump old eyelashes in.
Things I use every day go up here and my little white picket fence container sits next to it.
So much happier with it all clean and neat. It’s easy to keep clean and makes the whole room look so much brighter.
I am really happy with my first big project for the Home Sweet Home 😀 What do you guys think??
Illustrator. Strong tea, knitting, watercolours, and making a video game called Moonlight in Garland. Living with her adorable husband Jimmy, fluffy puppy Miss Lottie and Bergamot Bunny in Melbourne, Australia.