An empire vanity in general finishes queenstown gray milk paint
Queenstown Gray is a striking shade of gray from the General Finishes Milk Paint line. It’s much darker than Driftwood and has a slate quality to it. Queenstown Gray has excellent coverage and hiding properties, making it an ideal choice for pieces that have a darker existing finish.
It was the perfect paint choice for my latest project from the Eight Hundred Furniture workshop – an empire style makeup vanity!
Empire style charm
This empire style vanity was literally rescued from a dilapidated home. I went with a friend to do a clean out and I got quite a few lovely pieces from the trip. This vanity was a bit difficult to un-bury from all of the garbage and junk but it was worth it!
The tri-fold mirror still functioned well even though the back was completely warped.
All it took to fix it was to cut new hardboard pieces, remove the warped ones, and put the new ones on with a nail gun. It took all of 20 minutes to cut and install them!
I love the empire charm of this piece. The curved front legs and large chunky glass knobs are very typical of this style.
embracing imperfections
Because this vanity had been sitting in a poor environment for so long, it had a lot of veneer damage. I removed the really bad spots, but others I left alone. I would have driven myself crazy if I fixed every single spot.
Instead of fixing it all, I simply embraced the imperfections on this piece.
Miss Mustard Seed once said that when she refinishes a piece of furniture, she aims to refresh it, not restore it. I think this sentiment is very practical and spot-on for my style of painting furniture too!
arm-r-seal satin for the drawers
This piece definitely needed to be painted because, as I mentioned, there was a lot of damage to the original finish. The only parts that were in good shape were the drawers.
The finish on the veneer was worn, but the veneer itself wasn’t chipped. To fix it, I gently sanded the finish off and sealed it using General Finishes oil-based polyurethane “Arm-R-Seal“.
Arm-R-Seal is so easy to apply! Simply wipe on or apply with a foam brush and let it dry for 12-24 hours. Smooth sand in between coats and apply no more than 3 coats total.
I really like combining dark gray paint colors with rich wood tones!
