Vintage Dressing Table Project

I've had a dream of sitting in front of a vintage dressing table, brushing my Veronica Lake like locks whilst wearing a peignoir.  Now, I may have to work on the hair and I don't own anything as fancy as a peignoir, but I now have the vintage dressing table!

In our local council run recycling centre, where to be honest we've sourced most things to furnish our house, I came across this little dressing table.  A little shabby looking, with a huge mirror, but it was just £10.  Perhaps some magic could restore this to something glorious?  I consulted my personal furniture restoration expert (the other half!) and he was enthusiastic that something could be done.  The mirror would need replacing, and I also found an art deco mirror in the same shop for £15.  It gets even better, because they did a deal for me, so I got the two items for £20!

The bedroom where the dressing table was to go already has some pine chest of drawers in, so I didn't want the new piece of furniture to dominate the room - a decision was made to paint it white.  I know it's a shame to paint wood sometimes (there's nothing like the feel of lovingly waxed and polished quality timber - see my previous post about the dining room table restoration we undertook last year) but it just wouldn't have worked in its new setting.




First of all, the varnish had to be stripped off.  The electric sander somehow melted the varnish onto the sanding belt and several hours were spent picking bits out of the machinery so that it would work again.  In the end, elbow grease and some pieces of broken glass proved the most effective at stripping the varnish off.  I have to confess here that I didn't do most of the work - my Baby decided he'd restore for me as part of my birthday present, and he spent days and days on it!



After the varnish was stripped off, it was sanded, and a primer applied, before two coats of paint.  It turned out that the art deco mirror I'd bought was too short, so that will go elsewhere, and I fortunately remembered I had another mirror tucked away somewhere, so I dug that out of storage and gave it a coat of paint to match the dressing table.  My Baby then fixed it to the table, and I lined the drawers in some art deco style wrapping paper that I'd picked up after Christmas.  I also had a stool, that was pine with a sage green top.  We stripped and painted that also, and then I recovered it using some tiny black and white houndstooth fabric from my stash, with the assistance of a staple gun.







What do you think?  I'm over the moon with it!  Have you tried any furniture restoration?  What do you think about painting old furniture, do you like it or prefer it without paint?

Linkup: Stylish Tuesday