DIY | Revamping My Dressing Table

Now, my dressing table didn't look this rough prior to the revamp, but it didn't occur to me to do a before and after shot, but you can see what it used to look like here: My Dressing Table/Vanity. 

Anyway, this is the project I have been working on and I don't think, in the whole three years I have been blogging, a post has taken me this long to prepare or even put together, because there isn't a great deal I can say, the photos are pretty self expanatory, but I do want to include some clarification as well :) 

I haven't done a blog post like this before, I did the same to my wooden chair and bedside table a number of months ago and I wanted my dressing table t match eventually. So, during my Easter break, I saw that Britain was going to have some lovely, warm, dry weather for a few days, so I seized the opportunity before exam season gets into full swing.

The first thing I did was bring it outside, this is s I could sand it without it getting really messy. I actually used an electric sander to remove most of the varnish that was on it. When I was doing my bedside table and chair I sanded them both by hand, and let me tell you that was hard work! 

I sanded the fronts of the draws and also the cupboard door by hand because they were a lot smaller. I removed the draws to sand and paint them and only put them back in when the whole thing was painted and back in my room. 

This is what it looked it afterwards :)

Once I sanded everything, I took a damp sponge and just wiped down all the surfaces because you don't want to be painting onto dirty or grainy surfaces.

Afterwards, I got an old cloth and some white spirit and wiped the surfaces down with that as well, because I was doing it outside, there will always be bits that you can't clean or remove with water alone, so the white spirit helps to sterilise the surfaces. 

White spirit is really cheap to buy, I got mine for £2 in Wilkos, but you will need to be over 18 to purchase some yourself, so make sure you bring ID if you want to buy some :) 

All this sanding and cleaning is thirsty work, so while I was in Wilkos, I bought a cheeky can of coke to drink while I took a break!

I waited an hour for the white spirit to dry. Rain was forecast for that night so I had to bring the table inside and paint it which was annoying, but it meant that bugs etc wouldn't get stuck in the paint, so it was probably a good thing :)

Once it was in and I covered the floor with an old sofa cover, I primed it with pure white base coat. I gave both the table and the draws two coats so it was completely opaque. Unfortunately I didn't photograph this step, I'm not sure why, I think I was in a hurry xD 

I left that for 24 hours to dry, then I painted over that with a coloured paint (which looks white but is actually an off white, creamy colour). Once the first coat had dried, I painted over it again with the same colour, again to cover up any white or streak marks from the base coat I had applied the day before. 

Once that had dried, in order to match the other bedroom furniture I had painted 6 months previously, I wanted to paint the front of the draws and also parts of the cupboard door pastel blue. This was the easiest and least time consuming step of them all, I applied two coats of blue within about six hours of each other. 

The blue dried within a few hours as I spread the paint rather thinly because I wanted it to be as neat as possible. So, that night it got moved back into my room and I packed all my stuff back inside it and back on top and I just had to take some pictures to show you what it looks like now :)

I really love my dressing table and it was so much cheaper to just recycle old furniture than to go out and buy a new, nice dressing table. It also means that no one else has the same bedroom furniture as you! I love to customise, and this has been the biggest project I have worked on so far! I originally bought the dressing table at a chairty shope for around £20, which was a steal considering it's solid pine, so I didn't spend loads of money. If you see nice bits of furniture in different charity shops, think about what you could do with it, you might surprise yourself :)

I hope you enjoyed this post, it's a little different to what I would normally do but I really wnated to show you the results! Let me know if you have recycled or revamped any old furniture yourself and tweet me your pictures on twitter (links below or in the side bar). See you next time...Lorna X

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DISCLAIMER

I have not been paid or sponsored to write this specific blog post. All views and opinions are my own. I am not affiliated with any companies that may be mentioned in this blog post. All photographic content is my own. No Copyright infringement intended.