DIY Monday: Dresser to Bathroom Vanity? Part 3: The Big Finish!

If you read Part 2 of this series you'll see that I had a foot to replace on my vanity. The vanity was also full of dings that I wanted to fill in before painting the piece. Since I needed an open back for the pipes to go through, I pulled the back off of the vanity. I used spackling compound just as I would for a wall to fill in the gouges and holes. Just as you would with a wall, I waited for it to dry and then gave it a light sanding to smooth out the ridge.

I then lightly sanded down the whole piece to give the paint something to grab. Anytime you're painting a piece of furniture like this that has a finish on it (especially anything with a shine) it's a good idea to sand it down before you paint. It makes little tiny ridges for the paint to stick to instead of just a shiny surface on which the paint will streak or bead up. When you're finished sanding, run a cloth over the piece to get off what you've just sanded. Just to be safe, I also run over the piece with a tack cloth. A tack cloth is a cloth that's got sticky stuff on it made especially for this purpose. You can find it in the paint section of your home improvement store. The piece has to be clean before you paint it or you'll end up with little grainy bits in your paint instead of a smooth surface.

Before I painted the drawers, I wanted to replace the French Provincial handles with glass pulls. This required my filling the two holes required for the handles and drilling a single hole in the center of where the handle had been for the single pull. It's easier to do this before painting so you don't mar your paint and you can paint over the filled holes.

I used a shiny, oil based, outdoor paint on this piece because I wanted it to shine and wanted it to hold up to water. It is, after all, a bathroom vanity! I suggest, however, if you use an oil based paint, you get a set of brushes and rollers especially for this project as well as a pair of throw away gloves.

As I've said before, I like to be careful of the environment, but using turpentine to clean out a roller is almost impossible. Cleaning a paint brush is easier, but still difficult. For that reason, I usually use a wooden handled brush (cheap) and a roller I can throw away when I'm finished with the job. I start early in the day, cover my brush, roller and paint tray with plastic so it won't dry out, and then put on a second coat later in the day after the first coat has had time to cure (no longer tacky to the touch).

After two coats of paint, I checked for places I missed. Because there were so many cracks and angles on this piece, I really had to look at it from different angles to make sure all the brown was covered. Some opt to do some light sanding of the edges to let the brown underneath shine through for a more primitive look. I prefer the shiny opaque look!

Once the second coat dried, I then applied a coat of Deft to the top. And this is where my trouble began. Listen closely my friends for I am about to impart a piece of knowledge that will save you many hours and quite possibly your sanity. Never, NEVER use a latex paint over an oil-based paint. Never.

Now I know not to do this. I've known not to do this for most of my life because my Mama said, "Honey, never, NEVER use a latex paint over an oil-based paint." And I listened to my Mama and never did it... until now. I had just finished coating the entire top when I noticed the crackling, buckling and bubbling had started to occur. And THEN, I realized my mistake.

Many hours of stripping, sanding and repainting later, the vanity was ready to be installed. Since your "guts" will be different from my "guts" I won't get into how to hook up the pipes on the vanity. Every piece will be different and require creative problem solving on your part. I will say, however, you should set your sinks on the vanity and look at the placement before you cut your holes into the top.

In our case, we set the vessel sinks on top, measured from the side of the vanity to the base of the sink on both sides and in the front to make sure they were evenly placed. (Yes, this was during the sanding phase and before the repainting phase.) Once we were sure of placement, I marked the drain hole on the top of the dresser with a pen. We removed the sinks, drilled the holes and installed the sinks with the drains, hooked up the water pipes.

And then we stood back and admired our beautiful new vanity!