Crusty Old Waterfall Vanity Makes Good

I have always wanted a vanity. I am not sure why...maybe it's because it brings back a little bit of the magic of a woman making herself up and getting ready to go somewhere special. A dance or a date with someone fantastic who might look like an old-fashioned movie star (calling Clark Gable or Rudolph Valentino).

I have looked for years for the perfect vanity and for the longest time, I could not find any in my price range. My husband knew a junk dealer and he was advertising some of his finds on Facebook Marketplace. He cut me a deal on a circa 1930s-40s Waterfall vanity, a school desk, and two sewing cabinets (future projects). I left his place smiling like a queen.

Whoa boy, this vanity was sooo gross. It was caked up with ancient nicotine stains, dirt, mice poop and who knows what else. I found the remnants of a mouse nest, some religious reading material, a pair of old cat eye glasses and an metal owl earring holder. After my stomach settled, I got to work. I scrubbed and scrubbed with TSP and went through so many cleaning cloths.

Some of the hardware was still intact, but not all. I was disappointed but not upset. I went to Hobby Lobby and picked up some nice new pewter-finish hardware.

After all of that cleaning and sanding. I finally was able to prime the vanity and drawers (they were so bad!)

I applied two coats of Kilz primer and let it dry for 48 hours. After lightly sanding that, I applied three coats of Waverly Chalk Paint in Plaster (I use this paint quite a lot, as you'll see.)

Before top coating the drawers, I added two coats of Waverly Chalk Paint in Mineral to the insides of the drawers and abit of surprise with Iron Orchid Designs stamp called Rose Toile and I used black ink I purchased from Hobby Lobby to stamp it with. It gave it a hint of femininity.

She is not perfect. I kept her dings and dents because it adds character and age. I nicknamed this vanity "Marian". Marian was the middle name of my grandmother and because of her love for transforming furniture and making old things new again and inspiring me, I felt like this was the most perfect way of me honoring her memory. I keep a small photo of her as a young mother to remind me where I came from.