Hello again! I have missed sharing my projects … but life just got toooooo busy. I think my last post was framing our master bathroom mirror! Anyway, I hope you all had an amazing Mother’s Day. I know I was spoiled by my husband and kid’s. And, for the first time in eight years, I had my mother (Karrie) with me! She’s been in a hospital for a while, so I was excited to spoil her rotten. Since she loves a makeup space and she didn’t have one yet at my house, I decided to get her a vanity. And of course, I had to make it to her style. So check out how I created her a custom vanity!
Update time!
Before I get started on the vanity, I’ll give you an update on the family. It’s been about three months since my last update … oops! Let’s see …
We purchased my mom’s house in Montana as our second home. It’s up as a short-term rental while we aren’t in town. The kid’s love staying in Montana, so hopefully after we get my mom on a good medical cadence, we can be there a lot more often!
Speaking of my mom, she is doing AMAZING! God has restored her health to what it was before my father passed away. She is enjoying life again and we love having her with us in Georgia.
Over the past three months we had Valentine’s, our 10-year wedding anniversary, a beach trip and Easter. I left the work force and we also have Sawyer’s 2nd birthday coming up next weekend!
February and Valentine’s Day!
In February Harper also started taking piano lessons. I’m excited to see where it takes her! Oh, and she also lost her first tooth! Daddy was out of town in Montana, but she was excited to show him on the phone. Of course the tooth fairy showed up!
For Valentine’s the kids enjoyed the traditional passing of valentines at school, along with a little party. My aunt Diana sent a cookie decorating kit that the kids (and me!) LOVED. Always fun to decorate cookies!
March and 10-year Anniversary!
In March, Sawyer moved from a toddler bed to a twin bed. He sure loves his racecar bed! To make it fit his super hero theme, I added some Avengers decals to it. HAHA!
Ben and I were married on St. Patrick’s Day. So, for our 10-year anniversary we left the kid’s with my sister for a couple days and went to Helen, Georgia. It’s a cute little touristy German town. We rented a cabin, enjoyed the hot tub and just relaxed! Of course the time went by way too fast.
Toward the end of March, Sawyer ended up with a nasty eye infection of some sort. Poor guy wasn’t feeling good at all! Luckily it cleared up after a few days of drops and antibiotics!
And on March 31st, I left the work industry to stay at home with my kids. With all that’s going on in the world, I want to make sure I am there for them as much as possible and their primary influence in life. The world is constantly changing and we have to do all we can to guard our and their hearts.
We didn’t take the decision lightly, as we’ve been in the plan for a while. In 2019 we started toward this with eliminating debt. After paying off about $260k in debt (I’ll share more on this in the future!) we were ready to take the leap and give up a six-figure income. We know that no matter what, we are in God’s hands and we have prepared as best as we can for the change. I can’t wait to enjoy this summer with my babies!
April and Easter!
Early April we enjoyed a fabulous beach vacation on Fripp Island in South Carolina. My sister’s family and my family rented a house on the beach. Definitely changed the game being on the beach. We really enjoyed our time and of course the kids had a BLAST! Harper even lost her second tooth on our beach trip!
Then Easter came along. Unfortunately, the night before our entire family (minus Sawyer) woke up in the middle of the night throwing up multiple times. We were down for the count on Easter Sunday. After about 24 hours we were recovered and the following Sunday we wore our Easter outfits! Easter wasn’t what I had planned this year, but it was a beautiful family day nonetheless. The meaning of Easter isn’t in our outfits or eggs, it’s about Jesus’ resurrection! And before we got sick, we did get to dye eggs and decorate cookies … so the commercialized side of Easter wasn’t a total loss.
Oh, and before I let the April update go I have to give a shout out to our pup, Captain. Yes, our Captain (Cappy) America Danger boy turned one on April 27th. He’s been a handful and made us do some fix-it projects, which will come soon to the blog … but he’s a love bug! Happy birthday Cappy!
May and forward …
Now we are in May! Mother’s Day was just a few days ago and Sawyer will turn TWO in a few more days. School is in it’s final weeks and summer will begin. Can’t wait to see what this season has in store for us!
The Mother’s Day Gift!
Now that you have a bit of an update, I’ll share how to create a custom vanity. I found this lovely vanity for my mom after looking for one for a few weeks. A few weeks prior I had mentioned a vanity to my mother and she had wanted one in blue. I didn’t just take her blue idea … I added in her love (really, obsession) for roses … and created her a completely customized vanity. From a smokey blue, to roses, to perfect fabric to lined drawers, this vanity screamed my mother’s taste! And, she was just as surprised during the reveal!
So, I got this beautiful 1930’s era vanity home and started work the same night. It was in pretty good condition, overall. First thing I did was wipe it down. Always good to use a degreaser and wipe it all! Next, I filled in the scuffs. You can use Bondo or wood putty fill – depending on how big the scuffs or issues are. Bondo is a great fix for big issues.
Prepping the piece
I also got out painters tape and a garbage bag and covered the mirror so I wouldn’t get any paint on it. It was tedious covering the edges, but it makes the painting so much easier! I taped and taped and taped and used my exacto knife to trim up the edges.
I let the vanity sit overnight to dry from my rapairs and sanded it smooth the next morning. Then I did another wipe down. I knew my mom loved a smokey blue, so I found one called smokey azurite from Sherwin Williams. At Lowe’s I saw their cabinet paint and thought I’d try that instead of my trusty Sherwin Williams paint. I had it tinted in the smokey azurite color.
Painting the piece
This Lowe’s paint didn’t require any primer or sanding, so I thought I’d see how it really worked. We got out our paint sprayer that we had just purchased to paint our fence in (coming soon blog post!) and sprayed on the first coat of smokey blue. It went on pretty smooth. I had to help a couple drips, but overall, it was a nice coating. I let that dry several hours.
For the next coat, I hand painted it on. I could still see spots after three coats. This paint was NOT all it was cracked up to be!
Sherwin Paint is much better!
So, I decided to give it a bit of a sanding and went ahead and put on a primer. Then I grabbed some Sherwin Williams paint and sprayed on a coat. Definitely was much better! Hand painted a quick second coat and after that dried I put on the polyacrylic top coat.
After the first polyacrylic coat, I grabbed my Prima paint transfers. I knew my mom loved roses and these were perfect for the vanity top. It would make the piece more interesting and help it scream “Karrie”!
Transfers are awesome!
After the roses were transferred on, I painted on two more layers of the protective top coat. I was almost done!
All that remained was putting the rose contact paper in the drawers, fabric on the bench and cleanup of the mirror!
Drawer Liners = Tedious Work
One by one, I cut and placed the contact paper in the drawers. I should add that during my initial sanding time, I sanded some inside the drawers to make them smooth and get rid of some gunk that was in there. Contact paper is tedious, but it does give freshness to the inside of a drawer and provides a bit of a surprise when the drawer is opened!
Fabric for the bench
My sister, Sherena, picked out the fabulous fabric for the bench at Hobby Lobby. It was getting late Saturday and we were out of staples to cover the stool in the new fabric, so my husband ran it over to Sherena’s house and she helped get the fabric on the stool. It looked amazing!
Ben brought the bench top home and we screwed it back onto the bench. Now all that was left was cleanup and knobs!
Cleaning up!
I got out my exacto knife and scored the edges of the mirror so paint wouldn’t peel apart as I was taking off the tape. The protection over the mirror came off beautifully and all I had to do was Windex it clean!
Oh, and I scored some fabulous rose knobs that fit the piece perfectly. Got those all screwed in and this beautiful smokey blue, rose covered vanity was DONE! We were all excited to reveal it to my mother on Mother’s Day morning! We had her wait in the bathroom and we brought it into her room piece by piece. Put it all together and called her over!
Giving the gift!
The look on her face was priceless! This was a custom vanity designed just for her taste! Now she has a place to do her makeup and call her own. Definitely a fun surprise and fun to finish! Can’t wait for my next project …. I have a few in the works!
Thoughts?
What did you think of this custom vanity? Let me know in the comments below!
Be blessed!
