Dreamy vanity redo!

A customer of mine had this adorable little vanity for her daughter that she wanted me to paint. Even in its original state it's cute as a button! It even has this cute little stool that someone already covered the seat with a more modern fabric.

Her daughter picked out a color from my previous customer, the owner of a beauty salon called Tangles in Hazelhurst, Ga. It's the color of one of the walls in the salon. Now, it's a pretty color for a salon, but I just didn't know how it would look on this vanity! Especially since her room is already hot pink and black!

Nevertheless, I got the paint, mixed it up just right for the color she wanted, and got to work. 

CRAP!! Can you see how shiny that finish is on that vanity?? I don't think that even chalk paint is gonna stick to it! People say chalk paint will stick to ANYthing, but that's not necessarily true! I've had a couple of pieces that it wouldn't stick to! 

What the heck am I gonna do?? I don't want to spend hours on hours stripping and sanding this varnish! I'd heard of a "liquid sander" but my local Lowes store had no idea what I was talking about....are you kidding me! If Lowes doesn't carry it I'm screwed!

I rode to our small town True Value hardware store and asked....they had no idea either! Omg! I'm ruined! We scanned every shelf and read every bottle and can and finally found this lifesaver!

I followed the directions on the back... Basically you just wipe it on to clean the surface, then rinse it off and it kind of "dulls" the finish. I let it dry overnight.

The surface was definitely a touch "deglossed" but I just didn't know if it was going to be enough to make my paint stick! I wish I'd have thought to take a picture to compare the finish from before to after!!

I normally mix my own chalk paint. When I first started mixing it I used Plaster of Paris. I DON'T recommend using that in regions where there's heat and high humidity!! It "beads up" way to much. Now I just use powdered chalk. Works a hundred times better! I've been told that I get the same finish with my chalk paint as those more expensive name brands. I usually just mix about 3-5 heaping teaspoons (just a cheap plastic disposable spoon) with a little water. You don't want it pasty, but you don't want it too runny...just enough to dissolve the chalk. Then I pour about a third of a quart of paint in. I just eyeball it so sometimes I have to add a little more of chalk or paint to get it to the right consistency.

But in this case I needed to make SURE the paint sticks! So I cut my normal amount of chalk and replaced part of it with my Plaster of Paris. That should do the trick!

And it did!! I painted on the first coat and here that is:

I let that dry about thirty minutes or so (chalk paint dries super fast!). I kind of "scratched" at the paint in a discreet place on the vanity to test my work....and it didn't scratch off!! YAY!!!!! 

So I painted my second and final coat. Once that dried I put the original knobs back on and hold on sweet Jesus it is pretty!!!

This was the original seat fabric on the stool, and it's going to be replaced by the customer.

Isn't she just a dreamy little vanity?? I'm pleasantly surprised with how she turned out!!

My customers daughter is one lucky little girl! For a minute it made me long for a little girl ;) 

I hope you like it!