"You're so vain- you probably think this post is about you...."

Does anyone else hear that song and immediately think of Kate Hudson's tone-deaf karaoke on "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days"? .... Just me? Ok, nevermind.

Anyyyway, in my last post I dropped a little teaser about a vanity I rehabbed for my bestie BK. She recently moved into her own apartment for her dietetic internship and was on the hunt for some small pieces for her new digs. I had this little baby in the garage and she thought it would fit perfect in the space!

Originally, this little French Provincial number looked like this: 

... I used to carry all of my hair supplies in that pink Craftsman tool tote. Don't judge me. 

Cute, right? 

But, she wanted it to be antique white and distressed with a little brown showing through. 

Here's the catch; this piece isn't solid wood. There were a lot of French Provincial style pieces manufactured in the 60's and 70's.... that were made with laminate (read: SATAN) on top of the wood. 

So, I had to use what I call the "fake it 'til ya make it" technique. Since I couldn't get the finish to be brown (to resemble real wood), I had to go through the following steps: 

1. Sand the laminate with 240 grit sandpaper to help the paint adhere

(tip: don't ever use anything less than 220 grit on laminate. The lower the grit, the more harsh the sandpaper is. Low grit sheets will just scratch the surface and it will most likely show through your paint. YUCK!)

2. Clean ALL the sawdust with TSP (or similar cleaner)

3. Apply a primer to help bond the paint to the laminate. I typically use Zinsser Bulls Eye, but there are several other brands that work just as well like Kilz. 

4. THEN, here's the sneaky part- I painted the entire piece in two coats of brown paint. This base coat will give the effect that the piece itself is brown when we distress our top coat.

5. Then, I applied my antique white paint. It took about 3 coats to cover up the brown. 

6. Now the fun starts :) I distressed the piece, starting with the edges and working in with 3 various grits of sandpaper. On this one I used 220, 100 and 60 grit. I also used a mixture of single sheets of sandpaper and an electric palm sander. 

If you're not sure how much you want a piece distressed, just start with the edges and gradually add some chippy spots as you feel comfortable. Your distressing will NEVER look the same, so be ok with imperfections. (Isn't that the point of distressing anyway?)

Also, when you're working with different layers of paint, make sure to sand lightly. If you press too hard you risk taking off your base color (in our case, brown). 

7. After I cleaned it with another round of TSP, I slathered on two coats of Polyurethane to seal it.

I usually use Polyacrylic to seal my pieces, because it dries clear. But, the white paint I chose did not look as "antiqued" as I'd hoped so I opted of polyurethane instead as it had a tendency to dry a little yellow. 

After all of that, this is what the final result looked like: 

And the best part.....

You can close the mirror and hide all your beauty junk when you're done! 

I'm taking this beaut up to her in Wichita Falls this weekend. While I'm there we're gonna be on the lookout for a cute stool and maybe some funky drawer liner.

I hope she likes it and I can't wait to see it in its new home. 

Here we goooo!

Of course it's raining today so I can't take it in the bed of the truck.. good thing it fits in Grey Goose's backseat!

Have a great weekend everyone! God bless!