vanilla mint vanity.

Published on by Quandie

Remember the gorgeous set of furniture I picked up last year?  The dresser and bed were intended for a custom client who had been looking for just the right pieces for a while.

2014 early summer blog

The pieces came as part of a set that also included a vanity and the seller didn’t want to break them up so I purchased all three.  The vanity has been waiting patiently out in the carriage house for a makeover ever since and I finally got to it last weekend.

Here is the winter-y ‘before’.

vanity before

The vanity was in worse shape than the other two pieces.  If you look closely, you can see that the lowest round part of the leg on the far right of the photo was broken off.  There were actually 4 of these round sections broken off of the various feet.  Ken helped me glue them back on.  In addition, the veneer inside the knee hole was badly damaged on one side.  The drawer fronts also had quite a bit of veneer damage.  In other words, this piece was an excellent candidate for a paint job.

I took my inspiration for the color scheme from this beautiful nightstand that was painted by Dana at circadee.

circadee nightstand

Isn’t it gorgeous?  It’s painted in MMS milk paint in two of the new European colors, Layla’s Mint and Marzipan.  Fortunately, I had just stocked up on those two colors up at the Round Barn.

Here is my finished result.

vanity title

My Layla’s Mint looks a little more green than the inspiration piece, but I still love how it turned out.  I highlighted the details on the piece in Marzipan, which is sort of an almond color.

vanity mirror closeup

I got a lot of great chipping too.

vanity close up

MMS Layla's Mint and Marzipan

The hardware that came with this piece is lovely.  I debated adding some rub n’ buff in gold like Dana did on her nightstand, but in the end I just cleaned mine up and waxed them with the MMS furniture wax.  I took a side by side pic so you could see the difference a little clear wax makes.

vanity hardware

I always love keeping original hardware whenever possible.  It just works so much better than the new stuff.  Let me take a moment to tell you about escutcheon pins.  Are you familiar?  They are the little bitty nails that hold a drawer pull like this one in place and keep it from spinning around.  You can see the little hole for the escutcheon pin on this one at that little point just below that center detail.  See it?  Often times these pins are missing on old furniture.  You can then usually see damage around the drawer pull made by the pull spinning around.  You can see that on this dresser I brought home last winter.

riverside dresser before

See those circle shaped groves around the hardware?  People will try to tighten the screw to keep the pull from spinning, but really you need to just replace the pin.

But, back to our vanity.

Vanity painted in MMS Layla's Mint and Marzipan

I love the shape of the mirror on this one.  Very unique and lovely.

Vanity mirror

Wouldn’t this piece be absolutely lovely in your dressing room?  Not lucky enough to have a dressing room?  Then perhaps in your guest room, or maybe your daughter’s room?  This one is for sale.  Ooops, sorry  you missed it, this one is sold.

I’ll leave you with one last ‘before and after’.

2014 early summer blog1

28 thoughts on “vanilla mint vanity.”

  1. This is beautiful!! The details and distressing are just gorgeous. I’ve not yet used MMS milk paint but really need to try it!

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    1. I will warn you that there is a steeper learning curve with milk paint than with some of the other paints out there. I highly recommend starting with something small and getting a feel for it before you tackle a piece of furniture. I also recommend taking a class, if there is one available around you. But once you get that fabulous chippy finish, you’ll be hooked.

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    2. P.S. See my response to Ann regarding milk paint. But since I know both you and Ann paint a lot of pieces of furniture, I really think you both should give milk paint a try!

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  4. So pretty and a lot of time was put into bringing this baby back to life. Well done Quandie! I hopped over to Hazel Mae Home too! Her vanity is lovely. Paint on my friend.

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  6. Gorgeous vanity. Amazing finish on it. I did not know that about the pins! I’ve learned something today. Thx.

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  8. Awwwww, everybody needs a ‘Ken’ in their creative life! I love how you made the details pop with the second color….Great work!!

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  10. Love, love, love. Fabulous job both painting and choosing the colors. Truly brings this piece back to life. Great way to express yourself through the process. Way better than crunching numbers…lol.

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