Bathroom Vanity Makeover with Gel Stain

 

Our bathroom had an 80's model vanity with a top that was deteriorating (not to mention very ugly green!). The cabinet wasn't bad but finding a top to fit was difficult. One day I ran across a used vanity on our local swap shop and it was too good of a deal to pass up. The only problem was the color of the cabinet; it was too light for the rest of the woodwork in the bathroom (and whole house). I had done some prior research and knew I could try Minwax stain gel. So, I did give it a try. Here's my experience and the result.

The before. Notice the light bar... The seller of the new vanity also had a light bar I ended up buying and changing up as well. More on that later.

Below is the new (used) vanity I purchased.

After sanding down the cabinet, I applied one coat of the Minwax Gel Stain in walnut.

I kind of liked the rustic look after one coat. Here's one door with the gel stain and one without. I applied the stain by brushing it on and having a clean rag ready to smooth it out and touch it up where needed. The stain is very thick and can gel up in spots so be ready to even it out where needed.

 I experimented with one side of the cabinet that would be against the wall to see how it would apply without sanding and it worked just as well. So, sanding is not necessary before applying. Note, this takes quite a while to dry; it will be tacky for quite a while but will eventually harden up.

 Well, I decided to go with two coats and below is the final results. It was hard taking a picture and getting the right lighting so I'll post different shots.

 (Notice new light bar.) 

How to Paint Stained Furniture

After my daughter pulled an ugly end table out of a dumpster and made it look beautiful,

 I started looking around the house to see what else she could do. Here's what I had and what she did! Now this is my favorite piece of furniture in the living room!! 

First step, paint with Kilz (or any brand) primer. If you want to sand before priming you can but she didn't on this piece and it turned out fine.

When that's all dry, paint on the desired paint color. Add another coat when that ones dry.

 After the paint was all dry, I lightly sanded the edges with a fine grit sand paper to give it a slightly worn look.  I also spray painted the hardware with a dark brown paint.

That's it! and what a transformation!

Cabinet Makeover

Before

After

I was needing a school cabinet and found this one at the thrift store for $35. I brought it home and got to work. I LOVE spray paint!! Here's what I did to refinish it.

I removed the plastic out of the door. I had originally planned to replace this with beadboard but decided to just spray paint and reuse what's here.

Then I sanded the wood on the doors and wiped them with a clean cloth.

 

Here's the paint I chose to use. I don't have any special attachment to this brand, I just liked this color best at the store.

 When painting, you should do quick strokes and NOT go back and forth continuously. Make sure to let up on the nozzle when changing directions.

 Here's the before and after of the doors. While the middle plastic pieces were out, I spray painted them white with some paint I had.

My daughter primed the cabinet for me with white Kilz primer. Once that was dry, I laid it down and sprayed it with the same spray paint. Honestly, it was too large of a surface to spray but I was already in so I finished and it turned out fine. The whole job took 2 cans of paint.

These casters were a great bonus to this piece. I took a picture of them to get good ideas of how to mount casters to other pieces of furniture.

  Then I spray painted all the hardware.

 The final product. I still need to make a top for it which should be easy with our new Kreg Jig! :) I'll post that when it's done. 

This is now our Homeschool post. Above the cabinet is a large picture frame that I removed the backing from, spray painted with my left over paint and turned it into a dry erase board that displays my children's daily to-do list. I place their initial beside their job each day and they erase their initial when the task is complete.

Farmhouse Table Finish and Helpful Notes

For the finish: Minwax Provincial Stain

White Paint

Water

Minwax Polycrilic

paint brush and/or foam brushes, clean rag/towel and tub for mixing paint and water

I finally talked my husband into building a farmhouse table from Ana-white.com. I wanted to share the results with you and explain how I did the finish.

Here's the table and a bench in the making. We made this one 7 feet long rather than the 8 feet that the original plan calls for.

 For the finish. I sanded it down with a random orbital sander first with a coarse grit and then with a fine grit paper. Then I brushed on one coat of Minwax Provincial Stain and let dry over night.

Stain complete.

This was my practice board for the white wash.

Stain and part of white wash.

 Once the stain was dry. I mixed Color Place semi-gloss white paint (only because that's the white paint I had on hand; pretty much any white- or whatever color you want to try- paint will do.) with water in an old ice cream tub. I mixed about 1 part paint to 3 parts water. For more white, add more paint, for less white, add more water or less paint. You can practice on a spare piece of wood or underside of furniture until you obtain desired look. Once mixture is complete, paint on the watered down paint with a brush or foam brush and wipe off immediately with a clean rag/towel. I used an old "flour sack" towel (those can be purchased at Walmart in the kitchen towel section). The harder you wipe, the less white will be left, the less you wipe, the whiter it will turn out. You can just see how it goes and what you like best while applying it. If it ends up too white, or to clean up drips and runs that are still moist, you can either get your cloth wet with clean water and wipe off, or sand down when it's all dry. If you decide you want more white when it's all dry then just repeat the process.

 When the wash was all dry. We sealed with several coats of Minwax Polycrilic. The Polycrilic is water based, dries very fast, is very easy to clean up and virtually has no odor. Here's the final look.

 And the bench. I made the top whiter because it was redder wood resulting in a different stain color. I did end up sanding that down once I compared it to the table and now it looks great! (Sorry I don't have a picture of the two together finished. We were anxious to get the table into the friends' house before the bench was complete.)

Notes in making this table:

1- On the table, we didn't screw the top onto the legs but after moving it into the house, joined the top to the legs with large L-brackets.

2- After using the Kreg Jig, I had a hard time getting the pocket hole plugs to go in. I ended up using a nail driver and hammer to knock them in and it worked great! 

3- On the bench, the pockets created with the Kreg Jig were too small for the plugs because the board was only 1 inch thick. So after much hassle, I finally created something to shorten the existing plugs. I used the Jig drill to create several holes in a spare piece of 2x4. I drilled to a depth that would hold the plugs but not lose them down in it.

Then, I inserted the plugs upside down into the created holes until they were firmly in place but not damaging the tips. Once they were set, I sanded the ends with a rough gritted orbital sander until they were the correct length for the pocket holes.

Here they are inserted. They got pretty banged up in all my efforts to get them in before coming up with this system. :)

If some were just a tad high, they sanded down nicely once they were set into the bench.