As i had mentioned in a previous post; I had another up-cycling project to get my hands on. This one was the good ole vanity and seat that this mommy had in middle school/high school (circa the early 90s). It is a stable piece and made of metal, so it can withstand the test of time. So the other day I went to my parent's house to retrieve this beauty. It has been in their basement and needed a bit of some TLC; a good wipe down and the screws tightened. A few weeks earlier while we were at the store I let Anna Grace pick out some colors to paint the vanity and seat. She choose a nice vibrant purple and lime green; at first I was a bit thrown by her color choice but glad we are branching out from the "50 shades of pink" that seem to occur in my house.
 |
| Before |
Once the girls and i got home and the set uploaded, we got to work! I washed down both pieces and this time i used a fine grade of sandpaper and lightly went over the vanity. On my last project I had some bubbling issues and thought I would try this since all 3 were from the same set. And since this is our second time of using spray paint on furniture i figured what did i have to loose if it did not work out. I learned from my first experience that if you spray too much you will have some drips and running. Better to do short light spray strokes and lightly go back over to cover parts you missed or need to darken up a bit. So we went to work on the vanity, and it went well. I set up the pieces outside in a shady area of the yard and started at it. Got most of the vanity painted and then left it alone - key is to walk away and let it dry. A couple hours later we went to check on it and finished off the vanity. One down and one to go.
Now the seat not only needed to be painted and but i needed to reupholster the cushion. Not that the current one was damaged but it was a boring white vinyl; and my AGB is anything but boring. First i unscrewed the the cushion from the base and then was in search of some fabric in my craft nook. Something I learned from my Grandma Fritzie was if you find a good fabric on sale get a couple of yards, you never know when you will need it. So i had a few different patterns of a great frabic I had purchased. I let Anna pick out her favorite and then sent her to play with some toys. The spray painting of the seat did not turn out as great as the vanity but the lime green still looks good. I had some issues with the actual spray paint can - some spatter and then I got a little too over zealous with spraying it. I did not go slow and steady, I then when i went back over to try to fix i bubbled a little in some spots.
The reupholster of the cushion went better than i thought that it would. I have never reupholstered before. I have watched it occur on tv and read a few segments on pinterest. I just laid the fabric flat on the dining room table and stapled on the side in the center first, then pulling the fabric snug i did the same thing on the opposite side. After this i stapled the first side secure in 2 more places and repeated on the opposite side. I moved to the corners next, i was not too sure so i just decided to staple like then you make a bed and do the corners.
 |
| Lay fabric flat on table |
 |
| working on first corner: pulled tight and stapled |
 |
| pulled tight and stapled this part down |
 |
| once corners were complete I stapled the bottom like I had worked on the sides |
 |
| I folded over the raw edge so the it had a more finished look on the underside |
 |
| cushion completed |
Now that i had completed the cushion all we had to do was wait for the paint to dry and then reassemble. As weird as this may sound the fabric on the cushion and the lime green paint match perfectly! It was as if these were meant to be, and I have one very happy little girl who loves her new vanity!
 |
the finished project
|
