Vintage vanity in lamp black by general finishes
I absolutely love vintage vanities! I’ve painted a few really beautiful pieces in the past.
This one was painted in Arabesque by Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint. It actually came apart in 3 pieces!
I painted this one early on in my furniture painting career. (Can you tell by the photography?) It’s done in Marzipan by Miss Mustard Seed.
Now I have a third vanity to add to my portfolio!
general finishes lamp black milk paint
This vanity came to me with a very red/brown stain that’s common on vintage furniture. I didn’t want to bother with priming to be able to paint this piece a light color, so I opted for the opposite – black!
My go-to black of choice is General Finishes Lamp Black.
The color of this black is soft. It’s not a stark black color. There’s a subtly to it that’s truly lovely. And it’s classy as all get-out!
I decided to seal the painted pieces in High Performance Topcoat in Flat. I wanted the drawer fronts and the top to be the true gems.
Antique walnut gel stain
One of my favorite and most-repeated looks on furniture projects is a combination of paint and refinished wood surfaces.
On the vanity, I decided to sand the top and the drawer fronts down to raw wood. After the original finish was removed, I restained them with Antique Walnut Gel Stain by General Finishes.
Gel stains are heavy-bodied and provide the deepest, richest colors of any oil-based stain available. They’re easy to apply and gel-like in their consistency. They are oil-based, so the cleanup is different than water-based products. You can clean up your application materials and hands with mineral spirits or waterless hand cleaner, like Goop or Gojo.
When it comes to disposing though, you cannot simply throw everything in the trash. Application materials, such as brushes and towels, containing oil-based products may spontaneously catch fire if they’re improperly discarded. You should immediately place all application materials soaked with this gel stain in a sealed, water-filled metal container. Then dispose of them in accordance with your local regulations for paint disposal. Every city, township and county is different, so you’ll have to do your own research on that topic. (If you’d rather not bother, then simply use water-based stains!)
The wood refinished beautifully on my vanity.
These refinished surfaces were sealed with Semi Gloss High Performance Topcoat. I wanted a bit more shine to the piece to draw out its classy features. I typically use Semi Gloss sheens for pieces that will get a lot of use like kitchen table tops and vanity tops.
The top looks absolutely incredible. The veneer was cut in such a way that it almost looks butterflied. It’s truly gorgeous. You couldn’t appreciate it with the dull existing finish. But now…just look at it!
The original knobs that came with the vanity were plain old wooden knobs. I discarded them in favor of these Lancaster Brass knobs from DLawless Hardware.
They look much better than boring old wood knobs!
a beveled bi-fold mirror
The mirrors on this vanity are incredibly heavy. The glass is the good old thick stuff! The two sides fold in, giving you different angles to see what you’re doing.
And the glass…oh the glass. It’s beveled!
available at homestead studios
If you’re interested in this piece, it’s currently available in my room at Homestead Studios.
If you’d like more details, feel free to send me a message. Until then, it will be hanging out with all of my other pretty things.
