Yay for another Home Sweet Home post finally 😀

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…

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Well realistically it looks more like this…photo[3]Honestly I’m one of those people who can’t keep things neat unless there is an exact system to do so >_<DSC_6512

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
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Diary entry:
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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 😀

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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.

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Eventually it started look good 😀 I used a sponge for an even finish.

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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.

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Taadaaaaa 😀

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So with the test run complete I moved on to the actual vanity 😀

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Beauty!

The current beauty set up is messy and awkward

 

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I was extremely dirty from all of the make up and dust floating around so step one was to clean it up.

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Next was removing all of the pieces I could without damaging it.

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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.

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I painted the other parts too including the mirror. I masked it off with tape first to make sure the mirror wasn’t damaged.

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The round parts were the most irritating to get smooth.

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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!

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I decided that I liked the pink doily so I glued it down.

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I cut out the length I needed.

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The little grids made it nice and easy to line things up.

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I cut out tabs so it could go around the top part.

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Then I slowly pulled out the paper and smoothed it all down.

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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!

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Looking good!

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Aaaad all put together!

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Getting there but not quiiiite what I wanted..

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So I covered James’ guitar case with some nice fabric XD

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Sorry James… well not really sorry XD

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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 😀

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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!

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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.

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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.

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Things I use every day go up here and my little white picket fence container sits next to it.

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So much happier with it all clean and neat. It’s easy to keep clean and makes the whole room look so much brighter.

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I am really happy with my first big project for the Home Sweet Home 😀 What do you guys think??