Another renovation....

So, the last time I wrote I showed you that I was doing a "mini" bedroom redo.  It really was mini, new paint on the bed with a new bedspread and bedskirt, new curtains, but wow, it really did make a difference.  Like I said, come back for the pictures after our Christmas open house to see the final product.

So, I had the brilliant idea, in addition to preparing the house for Christmas, running the shop and website, creating new kits and little projects, to dive into a bathroom redo too!  Am I crazy?  I think so.  Actually I was not very involved in this one other than picking things out.  A couple of years ago I was poking through a friends barns (where I go to get things) and I saw this sink.  I fell in love and wow, what a steal....only $75.  It was in bad shape....not quite as bad as what you see below, you see it spent a couple years in our barn and had a couple things dropped on it resulting in some pretty severe chips.  I had bought the sink with the intent of using it in the kitchen but then decided that that's what everyone does, I wanted to use it in the bathroom.  Hey, a lot of people have double sink vanities in their bathrooms, why can't I have a large farmhouse sink?  Who says I can't right?

So, I asked around to some of the local ladies who come in our shop if they knew of anyone who did refinishing.  Sure enough, Ann came to the rescue and let me know of a wonderful refinisher who had done her bathtub.  Well, he came to pick it up and look what he did!  I nearly cried when I saw how beautiful it was.  Now I had the task of thinking about what I wanted to mount it on.  Originally I thought I'd pick up an old antique dresser or something neat to mount it on, but when I thought of cutting a huge hole in the top of an antique I just couldn't do it.  So, I did what most of us do, I went to pinterest to soak in some inspiration from some beautiful primitive bathroom pictures.  I found something close to what I wanted and brought a picture to our local furniture making Amish family up the road.

Well, Moses really came through!  I asked him to make it from Cherry, boy is this piece heavy.  I wanted drawers on one side and open cubbies on the other.  The intent is to put narrow baskets in the cubbies for washcloths and toiletries.

So, the next step was painting it.  I had some textured wallpaper hung in the bathroom and had it and the beadboard painted a nice muted color so I knew I wanted a bit of a POP for the vanity but also wanted to to have a vintage look.  So, I headed on up to Gunn's Corners to get some more of that awesome Country Living paint.  While there, Betty Ann, the owner introduced me to Jamie, who paints several of her pieces and when Jamie offered to paint my vanilty, knowing I am short on time this time of year I jumped.  So, Jamie come over on Monday and started "gooping" the paint on.  I say "gooping" because that is exactly what you do, you just goop it on.  It's a very thick, peanut buttery like paint.  You choose a base coat and goop it on, then let it dry, then brush on "chipping cream", which allows you to sand the top coat of paint and allows the base coat to peek through without going all the way down to the wood.

So, after the chipping cream was brushed on and allowed to dry, she goooped on the top coat.  Don't worry, it is not super bright.  Notice how thick this layer was also "gooped" on?

After the top coat had dried came the sanding part.  Jamie and I hauled this very heavy piece outside and she sanded the heck out of it.  You will see that she did sand down to the wood on the edges to achieve a nice, worn look.  After sanding she applied a coat of brown toner which really brought down the red and turned it more into a barn red instead of a fire engine red.  The toner was applied rather thick and then wiped off lightly.  After that dried a satin top coat was applied.  As it is going to be used as a vanity Jamie applied three coats of the top sealer coat to the counter part.

I highly recommend this country living paint.  In fact, I find myself walking around my house saying "hmmm" to a lot of my furniture pieces.  

So, just like with the bedroom, you will have to come back on December 4th to see the finished pictures.  

Until next time.......