Transforming an Art Deco Waterfall Vanity

I was thrilled when my sisters good friend had an estate sale and was selling vanity a vanity that'd been in her family for decades. It was a beautiful 1940's/50's waterfall vanity with a great round mirror, typical of this era.  It needed a little work but I knew it'd clean up to be a great piece.

Here she is before:

I love the flat, all one level surface of this vanity. So many of the vanities I've seen in this era have two levels. I also fell in love with the faux wood grain scrolly details and the large gold drawer pulls. Not to mention the curved edge of the top! Love, love that!

What to do with this piece? That's always the hardest part. I knew I was going to have to strip the top of all of the old varnish, it was chipping away. (Which made for the easiest stripping job ever.)

Once I had it all cleaned up I decided to go with a neutral creamy color. I used American Paint Company's Homeplate with some Amber Waves of Grain mixed in. This resulted in a creamy white with just a hint of gold.

Amber Waves of Grain

Homeplate

 The custom color was just perfect for this beauty!

I decided to leave the faux wood detailing on the mirror base and the drawers and I'm so glad I did. It really adds a touch of character.

I sealed it up with a terrific product I absolutely love from Old Town Paints, Clear Matte Finish. This is the perfect alternative to waxing and it's more durable but it still leaves the same sheen as wax without being too shiny. I just love this stuff!

I also picked up a little vanity bench, unfortunately not from the same era, but painted the same custom cream color and upholstered with a fabulous patterned fabric it looks terrific.

Not only does the art deco vanity look great, it's super functional with deep drawers for storage. I just love doing transformations like this!

Tinting Primer with Chalk Paint

Often times you get your hands on furniture that you aren't quite sure of its history. It's probably had years of wear and tear and who knows what has been spilled on it. I often find myself looking over a piece of furniture with concern...should I prime it? Should I just chance it and just slap some paint on? I have taken my chances many times, only to have a piece totally painted and days later notice "bleed through" coming up. There is nothing more frustrating than old grease stains making an appearance on your freshly refinished piece!

So I decided to start priming most pieces that seemed like they'd have some issues. The brand I use is Zinsser Bulls Eye 1-2-3 Primer. I have used both the Zinsser spray-on and the Zinsser paint-on kinds. I prefer the paint-on method. That way I can get the primer exactly where I want it without worrying about "over spray". Plus, you can tint the paint-on primer.

My big problem with primer is....what if I want to distress and show another color underneath but I don't want it to be the bright white primer? Sure, I could prime it, layer another color over top, then paint with my final top color. Who wants to paint a piece of furniture that many times?!

I kept thinking there has to be an easier way — and there is! Go ahead and tint your primer with whatever color of chalk paint you want to distress down too. This is the custom mixed tinted primer I used on a recent project and it worked great!

I measured out 1 cup of primer into a clean disposable container. (Make sure you have a lid that fits, you don't want your primer drying up if you need to step away for a while.) Then start measuring out your chalk paint color tablespoon by tablespoon. You will want to stir in each addition in VERY well. Be sure to keep track of your "recipe" just in case you have to mix up more later. Be on the safe side and just mix too much the first time around. =) Save yourself a huge headache.

I ended up with about 1/4 cup of my chalk paint color to my 1 cup of primer. It went on a lot lighter than shown above and really compliments my finished color well.

I think the finished piece looks much better than it would have if I would have distressed down to the original white primer.

I like the subtle distressed look. And I really like the fact I only had to paint it twice, once with  my tinted primer and the second time with my chalk paint color. After all, the less you have to work on a piece the better it is!

 Note: We always clean all of our pieces with TSP before we do anything to them.