Grandma's Vanity in Classic White

A past customer sent me these photos of her grandma's vanity and dresser she had been given but no longer had use for and asked if I could give them new life. Of course I would love to :)

Here they are in my garage after picking them up. Time to get busy, the hardware was removed and they were all scrubbed well to get rid of years of past use.

Then it was time to make all repairs, antique pieces usually need a few. This one required regluing and clamping of lifting veneer areas as well as wood filler in areas that needed it.

Next order of business was to power sand all the surfaces to smooth the original finish that had some lifting and loose areas as well as gives better paint adhesion when lightly sanded.

Now to the fun part, paint! I wanted a fresh crisp clean timeless look for this little beauty. White allows it to fit in any color scheme and is always classic. The white I chose was Fusion Mineral Paint in picket fence, a true white.

White is a hard color to get opaque even over such a light finish as this. I applied 3 coats of picket fence in total.

After the first coat is when you will find any areas that bleed thru, like this small area circled in blue. The best and easiest way to solve this is to spray with Zinsser shellac. Let dry and apply your next coat of paint.

Now to address the old hardware, the handles are very unique so I updated them with satin nickel spray paint.

For the top drawers I added new crystal knobs to give the sweet little vanity some sparkle.

The one top drawer had an ink spill from years gone by so to cover it I cut some pretty striped wallpaper to fit for pretty drawer liner.

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The drawer runners had some wax applied to allow the drawers to slide smoothly.

The stool seat was well worn so a brand new 3/4" plywood was cut from the original and painted white, brand new padding and this pretty patterned classic black and white Damask material ironed and stapled securely to the new seat base.

Three coats of picket fence, a light sanding all over then 2 coats of Fusion' Tough Coat Finish was applied to the top flat surfaces for additional durability and this lovely lady is ready for many more years of service.

Did you know that the year the piece was manufactured was stamped on the back side of the mirror? While putting the original mirror back in the frame I confirmed it was June 10, 1958!