Sugar Plum Sundae

Strawberry Parfait

This week's feature is a piece that is near and dear to my heart! It was the first piece that I painted many years ago with the thought of (maybe?) being able to sell it one day.

~ A Sweet Little Treat for the Home ~

Strawberry Parfait

Hello My Sweets!

I ADORE vintage glamour! This piece is the embodiment of that vibe! I had a great canvas to work with, being not only a vanity, but an antique vanity! **Swoon** I can’t think of a piece that is more glamorous than that! 👸🏻 I love to imagine that a woman sat here in the 30’s putting on her make-up and powders and perfume from beautiful glass bottles, getting ready for a glamorous night on the town. 💖

I poured my girlie-lovin heart into the makeover to include a soft color palette, a splash of pink, vintage 50’s wallpaper lined drawers, champagne gold wax accents, and sparkly pink glass pulls. The after is the epitome of my style, but the before……not so much.

This dark brown wood really detracted from all of the beautiful details. In fact, they were barely noticeable. The whole piece was also covered in some sort of greasy furniture polish. This beauty deserved to shine and I knew just how to make that happen!

As always, the first step was a good cleaning. I used my go to cleaner, Krud Kutter https://amzn.to/3ciVtIm and went to work using my favorite microfiber cloths, https://amzn.to/36E9slO. Like I said, this was one of the first pieces that I painted, so I was not as experienced as I am now. If I were to go back in time, I probably would have at least scuff sanded, but truth be told, I didn’t. I also probably would have been very picky about the paint that I used, but truth be told, I used a chalk paint that I had on hand, https://amzn.to/3dhwNLz. I haven’t used this paint on a furniture piece since then because it is really chalky and kind of hard to work with on a large piece, but man, it adhered like a champ!! I also had ZERO bleed through! Being experienced now, I definitely would have primed it with my favorite primer to avoid bleed through https://amzn.to/3g8fuyb, but alas, this paint handled it! They say ignorance is bliss and in this case, maybe they were right….

Once the whole piece was painted, I moved on to the beautiful details. I wanted a subtle shimmer, a highlight, almost a worn glow in the shadows of the details. I didn’t want the obvious addition of color that paint would provide. To get the look that I envisioned, I thought outside the box. I knew that wax had more play time than paint and would be easier to create a blended look, but I did not have the color wax that I wanted. To solve this, I mixed a little champagne gold paint https://amzn.to/2LodNCm into some Annie Sloan clear wax. I applied the wax using a round brush, https://bit.ly/3oI0V9z in a circular motion around the drawers, in the trim, and on the raised details. I didn’t want it to look too neat or perfect. I wanted more of a worn, slightly messy look. I was able to move and “smudge” the wax to get the look that I wanted using a blue shop towel, https://amzn.to/3cHNPoE. Pro tip here – if you are working with colored wax and get it somewhere that you don’t like, you can “erase” it by going over it with clear wax. 💁🏻‍♀️

In addition to the gold wax embellishments, I used the same champagne paint https://amzn.to/2LodNCm and went around the trim with a craft brush https://amzn.to/3R9Hvah. The top, sides, and mirror where sealed with a few coats of matte sealer https://amzn.to/3e7gtNt to give it durability and keep the matte chalk painted look.

I knew that I needed to change the pulls on the vanity because the old wooden ones wouldn’t be glamorous enough. I tried several different options and finally went with pink facetted glass for the top drawers and distressed metal pink flowers for the bottom two. Mixing the pulls in this way gave it the perfect balance of sparkle and worn – which is my personal design style, “lived in glamour”.

The final bit of pretty that I had in mind was a lovely surprise when the drawers were opened. I painted the insides of the drawers with Champagne Blush from Valspar. It perfectly matched something that I couldn’t wait to find a use for – vintage wallpaper!! I found this amazing vintage wall paper from the 50’s while on the 100 mile yard sale in North Carolina/Virginia. I scored a whole roll for $1!! It has these fun, almost abstract, floral patterns with dots of metallic gold. The thickness of it made it the perfect drawer liner. The paper was cut to size, adhered, and sealed with decoupage medium https://amzn.to/3cV0eD2. I knew this last detail would give it that vintage glamour that I adore!

And there you have it, Vintage Glamour! I am so happy to say that this vanity went to a 13 year old girl who loved make-up, had pink hair, and was into art and drama. It makes my heart happy to think of her creativity being able to soar while sitting at this vanity. 💞 ✨

Thank you so much for joining me for Sugar Plum Sundae! Please check back every Sunday for more yummy recipes to transform reclaimed “junk” into sweet little treats for the home! 🤗

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XOXO

Michele

Materials List (may not be all inclusive):

Krud Kutter https://amzn.to/3ciVtIm

Microfiber cloths, https://amzn.to/36E9slO

Deco Art Chalk Paint, Lace https://amzn.to/3dhwNLz

BIN Shellac Primer, Quart https://amzn.to/3g8fuyb