Vanity Brought Back to It's Original Beauty

by Franny Monaghan Lathe

2 Materials

$50.00

3 Days

Medium

How many people have a yardsale to sell things and end up buying stuff.? I was having a yardsale and this gentleman saw my work on things I was selling and showed me some furniture he was wanting to sell. The Vanity spoke to me . From what I could see on his cell phone picture it looked in pretty bad shape and even though I love real wood grain , I figured I would chalk paint it and make it pretty.

vanity brought back to it s original beauty, home office, painted furniture

I paid him $20. and an extra $10 to deliver it. I knew my husband would have a fit and not want to go pick it up. He says I have too many projects.

This is how the top looked . Take note of the black burn mark on the top left corner . I'll tell you about that in a minute.

I started hand sanding the drawers thinking I could at least save the wood finish on them. I hand sanded them because I didn't want to sand too far in the veneer.

I wanted to see how bad the damage was on the top so I started sanding it . The wood grain was amazing.

I was afraid of over sanding the veneer so I went online and looked up an art deco stencil. I enlarged it and made a stencil that would cover the burn mark.

Here is a close up of the stencil . Kinda looks like a frog.

To tie in the stencil with the rest of the piece I hand painted black and gold accents t rest of the front.

Before putting all back together

I spray painted the original hardware with gold metallic spray paint.

This the overview of the wood grain. I used hand rubbed poly urethane . The mirror was put back in place after it was moved to the room we wanted it in. My husband said it was too short for my long legs so we added short legs to match.

Enjoyed the project?

You can do it! Saved to your projects

Frequently asked questions

Have a question about this project?

Ask a Question

3 of 6 questions

Carol Brown Hargrave on Apr 16, 2016
your project turned out beautifully! My question is about chest of drawers I have that is probably 50s. It's blonde wood, very flowy ornate metal handles and some gold leafing. How can I find out how to restore it? I look at it and don't think paint it the answer! I'd appreciate guidance on finding the right solution!

2
Berni on Apr 16, 2016
Thanks for sharing. I love the way you fixed the burn problem. The black and gold works well with the rich color of the wood grain! I was just wondering if you stained the wood before coating it with polyurethane? If so, what color?

0
Sheila D on Apr 20, 2016
Wow, nice job. Sometimes the veneer is either too thin or chips when sanding. What did you use to finish it off?

0

Comments

Join the conversation

2 of 68 comments

Sandra on May 29, 2016
So many people would have painted this vanity. So glad your didn't. The grain and placement ofmthemveneer is do wonderful, it would have been ashame to take that look away with paint. Great job.

Like Reply
Ginny on Jan 13, 2018

My mother-in-law had an entire BR set similar to this (in perfect condition) but vanity mirror was round. Style was called Waterfall and made during 1930s. Sold the entire BR set for $350 in 1980 to a couple who almost cried when they saw it and bought it for their new home.

Like Reply