DIY - Repurposing a Buffet or Dresser as a Bathroom Vanity: Part 2

At long last I've finally finished 
the buffet to bathroom vanity conversion!  

Well, the painting part at least... I actually finished several weeks ago,  but I've been tired and lazy and am just now

getting around to posting it.  :)  But what better time
to get back to blogging than when you're home sick
...on your birthday...
(birthday fail!)

I'm pretty sure the last time we saw this buffet

(Part 1) it looked like this:

My initial plan was to go with a strong black top,

to counter the white and separate the white base from the

large white sink.  I got the Rustoleum Satin Black oil-based

enamel paint.  Why?  Mostly because it was one of the only

non-spray black paints that wasn't giant at my
local hardware store.

I started by painting the dresser hardware with this shiny

black paint.  You can see it really shines!

Then I moved on to painting the dresser.

At this point winter was really starting to kick in so

I had to move the painting project inside (the outside temps

were too cold for the paint to dry effectively).

Moving the project indoors was a huge pain - not only because

we don't have a TON of space to work with (you can see

that I'm in this narrow area of the mudroom) - but because

there are cats indoors.  3 of them.

3 hopelessly curious cats.

3 curious cats that decided to jump all over the top of my buffet post-painting, regardless of the barriers I tried to put up.

You can see the paw prints below.

Those pesky kittens...

So I redid it.

And redid it again.

And redid it like, 17 times.

Sanding and painting, sanding and painting.

You can see in the shiny glare that the finish 

wasn't even - I'm not sure if it was user error or the oil based paint or what, but for THE LIFE of me, I could not

get that topcoat to look good.

It was streaky, uneven and terrible.  

Stuff got stuck in the topcoat from pretty much everything I used to apply the paint - and I tried a lot of different things!  

I used a foam roller, a regular roller, a hand bristle brush and a foam brush (all several times) and not once did I get something  with which I was even remotely satisfied.

Perhaps the problem was me, but I'll never 

buy that paint again!!

The longer drying time of the enamel also gave the buffet

ample opportunity to collect as much dust and cat hair

as possible.  TERRIBLE.

So after days (weeks?) of frustration, I finally decided

to screw the oil-based paint, and grabbed some of the 

leftover Rustoleum Hammered spray paint from

the tub remodel and decided to use that.

BEST. DECISION. EVER.

(after marrying Clint, of course)

This made the project 100 million billion times easier.

We moved the buffet into the bathroom that's getting renovated

so I could spray paint to my heart's desire without

worrying about the walls or the carpet or furniture,

and we could close the door to keep the kitties out.

I'm not sure why we didn't think of that earlier.

I also went over the hardware with the hammered paint to make sure it would match, since the hammered black isn't as

strong or shiny as the enamel oil paint.

I finished the painting in just a matter of hours.

Then Clint and I spent a few days going over white areas with about 3 coats of polyacrylic (since it doesn't yellow the way polyurethane does), and also went over the black 

top with about 4-5 coats of polyurethane.

Here's some shots of the nearly finished product.

I apologize about the color - it was a little dark without

lights and not much better with the lights. :/

~tada~

And here's just a couple shots with the huge sink.

I love how well the curve of the sink fits the buffet's shape.

Part of me wants to inset the sink since its a bit high and there's a convenient lip that we could drop into the top, but we haven't made a final decision on that yet.

natural light

overhead lighting

I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out - I think it'll look great in our black and white bathroom. What do you think?

DIY - Repurposing a Buffet or Dresser as a Bathroom Vanity: Part 1

We decided to repurpose an older buffet for use as a 

vanity in the bathroom remodel.  We chose this route for a few reasons - we like 'handmade' stuff, we wanted to save money,

and we thought the style would match the farmhouse well.

After weeks (months?) of craigslist browsing,

we finally found the perfect buffet.  Sadly it wasn't as 

cheap as a lot of craigslist finds (350, +25 for them to deliver), but I thought it was worth the investment. 

I really wanted a piece with center doors to maximize the storage we could get since we ripped a closet out of the bathroom to fit a double vanity.  Converting dressers with drawers in the middle requires cutting through several drawers to accommodate the sink drain piping and that kills a lot of your potential storage.

This is the buffet we chose:

I really loved the buffet feet (which remind me of the

clawfoot tub feet) and the woodwork along the base.  Because of the bowed front of the buffet, we've opted to use a single extra large (27" wide) oval sink, which mirrors the curve well.  

Originally it would have been nice to have his and her 

sinks - but it just wasn't right for this buffet.  And let's 

be honest, I doubt anyone had double sinks in 1911, right?  

At the end of the day, a single extra large sink is more 

era-appropriate and farmhouse-appropriate. :) 

 Though I'm not sure exactly what era this buffet is from 

(I highly doubt it's from the early 1900's), I am confident that it will match our bathroom perfectly!

* * * * *

The Refinishing Work

We knew we wanted to paint the buffet and stick

with our black and white theme, but we weren't sure how

much black and how much white to do.  After looking at several (dozens!) of b&w painted dressers on pinterest, Clint decided

that he preferred the 'less is more' look.

We decided to paint the entire buffet white except for the top and the hardware.  We thought it might be weird to have a white sink on top of a white vanity (and the whites might not match perfectly),  so a black top seemed like the perfect solution.

The first step in prepping the buffet was sanding

it and repairing the wood where needed.  We sanded with 100

grit sandpaper.  We probably *should* have gone over it again with finer grit sandpaper to make sure it  was really smooth... but we're lazy... and uh, this would make the buffet

look more 'antiqued' or 'rustic'... maybe? :) 

There were some chips in the top that needed filling,
and one part of the woodwork on the base needed repair.
We used Elmer's Carpenter Wood Filler.

After the filler dried, we sanded it flat and began
priming.  For the priming we used Zinnser Cover Stain Oil-based Primer Spray.

After letting the primer fully dry, we applied

the actual white paint to the dresser.  For the exterior

coat, we used Rustoleum Stops Rust Satin White Spray Paint.

We did several light coats. I think we used about 4 cans

for full coverage of the dresser and drawers.

After the white dried, I began painting

the buffet top - but I haven't finished yet.

I've been having some difficulties with the black

paint we chose for the top, and its been

nothing short of a huge pain! :(

Once I get that last coat finished, I'll seal the whole

piece using polyurethane on the top, and polyacrylic on the

body of buffet.  I've read that polyurethane is a better seal

against water (which is important for the top where the

sink will be), but yellows over time - which is why

we'll seal the white areas with polyacrylic

which isn't supposed to yellow.

I can't wait till it's finished - and to post an update

of the completed buffet vanity!

Stay tuned :)

Check out the final product in Part 2 here!