My New Kentucky Home

A blog about faith and family, home and homeschooling.

My Bathroom Vanity Makeover

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Before we moved into our house, we painted our bathroom red.

Yikes.  Big mistake.

It’s not that I don’t like bold color.  I do.  Really.  And red is one of my favorites!  But bold color has to be used in the right space or it can get very old very quickly.  And I think RED in the small confines of our bathroom was old to me before the paint had even dried on the walls!

But we’d done lots of painting to get moved into our house and the thought of more painting was enough to make me break out in hives, so I chose to live in denial and convinced myself I would grow to like the red.

Never.  Ever.  Happened.

Finally last summer I painted over it with a plain and sensible neutral.  I figured I could decide what colors to accent with later on.  But you know what I kept finding myself drawn to?  Accessories and wall art with black and…you guessed it…RED!  I still love red in my bathroom, just not from floor to ceiling!

Loved my $3 Hobby Lobby clearance find…
 
And this 18″ x 30″ score from a Big Lots clearance aisle for $12.50.  I LOVE it!
 
 

There’s something classy and a little bit vintage in the pairing of black and red, and earthy neutrals just add to the sophistication of the look.  I found myself loving the colors together.

But I still had this.

 

Bleh.  Oak cabinets like these are tolerably attractive and CHEAP, which is why builders use them so much.  But the oak finish is boring, a little outdated, and very casual and it just didn’t seem suited to the classic colors I was accenting with.  I wanted something dark; something classy.

Now I suppose the obvious solution would be to replace the vanity, but with that you’re talking about a whole new level of commitment and I was NOT ready for that.  I just wanted a color change and I thought an update like that could be pretty easy.

Stain would have been my preference.  I used a dark stain when I redid my kitchen table, (you can read about that project here,) and I LOVE it!  But there were a couple of problems with trying to stain my vanity.  For one, you’re talking about a lot of work.  I’m not afraid of hard work when it comes to repurposing or refinishing, but it’s only worth it if you can be fairly sure of success.  And that was my second problem:  My vanity is only partially real wood, and while I’ve read of some people having success with stain on particleboard, I’ve never been able to make it work myself.

Paint seemed the only way to go, but I wasn’t sure of the right color.  While black would have fit with my color scheme, it’s also a little less versatile if I decide to change accent colors later on.  But I wanted something dark, something close in shade to a dark mahogany or espresso stain, so I stood in the paint department of Lowe’s for ages comparing colors.  I had all four kids in tow, so I’m pretty sure the Lowe’s employees were as happy as I was when I finally picked my color!

The first step in remaking my cabinet was to remove the cabinet doors and hardware.

 
 
 

Then I just gave everything a light sanding.

 

Callouses, black fingernail outlines, and bandaids.  Obviously I could NEVER be a hand model.  
 

You’re not trying to remove any finish with the sanding; just scuffing the surface enough to help the paint adhere, so there’s no need for an electric sander.  Sandpaper or a sanding block will do just fine.

After that I taped off the surrounding areas with painter’s tape and protected the floor with plastic.  (TIP:  When I put up a new shower curtain liner, I always hang on to the old one, just for projects like these.  Makes for a great drop cloth.)

 

Then it was time for the paint!

 
 
 

I immediately fell in love with the color.  It’s called Black Raisin (4002-2C) Ultra Paint + Primer in gloss from Valspar and it was just the shade I was looking for.  Two coats covered my vanity perfectly, so I was pretty impressed with this paint.

I did much of the painting with a brush, but I recommend picking up one of these, too…

 
A foam mini-paint roller like this is great for painting small areas like cabinets and saves lots of time over brush painting.  You can pick one up for under $5.  And if I may offer another piece of advice:  Did you realize you could do this?
 
  
Who wants to wash brushes and rollers between coats or every time you get interrupted in your painting?  Provided you’ll be returning to your project within a day or so, it’s fine to simply wrap your rollers and brushes in plastic wrap or even a plastic grocery bag and set them aside.  Believe me, I’ve done this scores of times and it keeps them moist and ready for use when you’re ready to work again.  Just make sure they’re wrapped tightly!  
 
But back to my vanity…
 

Bathrooms tend to get dirty and ours sometimes gets CROWDED, so I wanted a durable finish that was also easy to clean.

 

I love this polyurethane because you don’t have to sand between coats and clean up is easy with soap and water.  I did the recommended three coats, allowing drying time per the instructions between each coat.

 
When the polyurethane was finally dry, it was time to hang the doors again!  I decided to replace the door pulls, too.  Keep in mind that sometimes just a change in hardware can make a BIG difference in the looks of your furniture or cabinets.  At $3.47 a piece, it was a cheap update.  
 
In the end, my vanity looked like this:
 

 

 

 
I am thrilled with my new vanity!  It has completely changed the looks of my bathroom, and I’m pretty impressed with the way the dark paint mimics the look of a stain.  That was exactly what I had hoped for in the beginning.  It’s only upon close inspection you can see the “stain” is actually plain ol’ paint! 
 
And this vanity makeover cost me less than $60!  And that’s including paint, brush, roller, sandpaper, painter’s tape, polyurethane, and two new door pulls.  Compare that to a new vanity, which would have cost me at least $200 and would have required a lot more work and made a lot more mess.  I got a new look for my bathroom at a STEAL of a price and the project was actually very easy.  
 
I am thrilled with the results and I’m thoroughly enjoying my “new” bathroom  No more ugly vanity!  
 
 



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Comments

  1. Ivy says

    So glad to read this! I'm getting ready to have to paint my son's whole bedroom suit. A bed, and 2 dressers! That's the exact color I'm wanting too!

    • kentuckysketches says

      Surely you can press him into it! 😉 It wasn't a difficult project at all and only took me a couple of days. And I figured if it didn't go well, then we'd just find another paint color and try again.

      Thanks for stopping by, Sandra! Hope you can tackle your bathroom soon, too!

  3. Angela ~ Call Her Blessed says

    This turned out so well! I love it, Tanya. I wrap my brushes & rollers with plastic too…I usually stick mine down into a grocery store sack & wind it around the handle. Another trick is to put them, wrapped in plastic, into the fridge overnight. Totally works and keeps them from drying out.

    • kentuckysketches says

      That little trick has been SUCH a help. I wish I'd known it when we painted our house! I think I spent more time cleaning brushes and rollers every day than I spent actually painting!

      Thanks so much for dropping in today, Angie!

    • kentuckysketches says

      I love to watch transformations like that, too! Checked out your blog, by the way, and LOVED your kitchen remodel. It tempts me to try painting our kitchen cabinets! But I'm not sure if I'm ready for a project like that just yet. I decided to start small! 😉

      Thank you so much for reading, Cheryl!

  5. Laura says

    Do you remember what color name you choose?
    We're almost done redoing our bathroom and have a very similar color scheme- neutral walls, expresso "furniture", white fixtures and red shower curtain and accents. I wanted to refinish a mirror and was looking for an expresso-like color at Lowe's, too. I didn't have much success. I bought a sample of "Deep Earth" but it is not quite right.
    Anyway, it looks beautiful! Congrats!

    • kentuckysketches says

      Thank you, Laura! It was called Black Raisin from Valspar. I love it because it has a brownish/blackish, almost purplish hue to it that is just perfect for our bathroom. Maybe it will work for you, too!

  6. Janet Boebert says

    I'm your neighbor at Monday's Musings. I love to read about DIY projects; I've even tackled a few myself, but never had the foresight to take lots of pictures and write about them! Nice! The cabinet is beautiful and you're right – there's something very striking about neutral colors with punches of black and red – elegant really. It looks like you made all the right choices with this one!

    • kentuckysketches says

      Thanks so much! I've learned people LOVE it when you share your DIY projects with them. Sometimes I think refinishing or redoing a piece can seem so overwhelming, but watching how somebody else tackles a project like that is very helpful and inspiring.

      So glad you stopped by today, Janet!

  7. Ai says

    Love the color! Painting the vanity is a nice, easy fix. We need a bathroom update but just can't afford it right now. This is probably something we can do. Visiting you from the Wednesday Blog Linkup @ Milk and Cuddles

    • kentuckysketches says

      A new vanity would have been nice, but I was really content with my bathroom aside from the color of the vanity, so why go to all that work and expense? Sometimes little fixes can make a BIG difference in the overall appearance of a room. Hope you're able to give this one a try!

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