The Bathroom Vanity Counter-Top

MmmmK!  I F.I.N.A.L.L.Y get to do a post featuring something for my bathroom!!! YIPPEE!!!!  Can you tell I’m excited much???

So to kick this off, I’m going to show you the totally F.A.B  vanity top that I did, well mostly “I”, but I did have a lil’ bit of help from hubs (he fetched, A LOT….bless his heart, cause I’m totally helpless most of the time)  and my precious mama…she has mad sanding skilz!! 

This is what I started with:

This was an old coffee table that someone had thrown away due to the fact that the legs were broken.  And my precious hubby being the hoarder he is, just had to bring it home!  Boy I’m glad he did too!  One man’s trash is another man’s vanity top! 

Of course I loathed that yellow varnished, 70’s whatever look.  SOOOOO not me!   I had to break out the big guns:

(be sure to follow instructions and wear gloves and goggles)

I applied the stripper as directed…and waited as it did its thang…

After I scraped all the stripper off I wiped it down with mineral spirits just to make sure I didn’t miss any of the old finish.

Then I sanded it….

And I sanded it….

And I sanded it some more!  My mom even got in on the actionJ

I wiped it down again with the mineral spirits just in case…

Now, I knew that I didn’t want a traditional stain.  But I wasn’t sure what I “did” want.  So hubby and I got to talking and he said we had some older than dirt black latex paint…hmmmmm.

I added some water to it and stirred like mad…got it all soupy and watery.  Then I tested it out.

I thought it looked A.W.E.S.O.M.E. so I moved right along.  

I stained both pieces, allowed them to dry, and proceeded with a brush-on poly.

As you can see, my poly is kinda, sorta…um, OLD!  So old in fact that the label has long been gone!  I just stirred it a bit and it was fine.  I’m no professional, so I can’t tell you if it’s not a good idea to use old poly, but thus far no probs, so I guess we are in the clear.  I’m kinda old school…ya know, “waste not, want not”. 

I gave her multiple coats, just for good measure.  In between coats I hit it with a piece of steel wool to knock off any little hairs or dust particles. 

Let it dry and viola!  You have yourself the perfect bathroom vanity top. 

Ain’t she pretty!!!  And it didn’t cost me a DIME!!!  I’m not sure which is my favorite part…the fact that it was F.R.E.E or how stinkin’ AWESOME it looks!

Whatcha think???

So, as soon as the bathroom is totally done, then I will be posting pics of it in place...in the BATHROOM:)  Stay tuned!!!