Choosing a vanity for the master bathroom was a drawn out process – much like any design decision I’m involved in. We looked at all sorts of store-bought vanities, but nothing in our price range screamed “take me home”. We looked at antiques, but didn’t want to put a hole in anything too valuable and then set it in the bathroom where it’d no doubt get water damage and makeup stains all over it. When I happened upon an adorable vintage dresser at a local thrift store that was just the right size, I felt like I hit the jackpot – especially after I saw the $25.00 price tag!

I quickly realized I wasn’t up for stripping it, since it had a milk paint finishing on it and the stuff is notoriously hard to remove. Instead, I decided to paint it. And since I’ve been dying to try out milk paint since seeing the stuff at Brimfield this past summer, that is what we went with.

The milk paint we ordered (from www.milkpaint.com) comes in powder form; it’s made of milk protein, lime, clay, and earth pigments. It is best used fresh – when you’re ready to paint, you mix it with water (1:1) and go to work.

STEP 1: PREP

First, I had Teague cut out a hole for the sink drain and plumbing. Then I spent about 4 hours prepping. This is the most important step when painting – the better you prep, the better your results will be. I removed all the stickers and gummy residue with Goof Off, and then scoured the entire thing to get any grease, smudges, dirt, etc off it. Then I sanded everything down with 100 grit sandpaper to give the existing layer of paint some “tooth” for the new layer to bond to.

STEP 2: MIX THE PAINT

I made the paint in an old plastic container. Anything you don’t use has to be thrown out (it doesn’t last long, overnight at best) so I mixed small batches. (A little goes a long way, I found – I guess I didn’t need to order the gallon of powder, but now I’ll have tons of paint leftover for other projects.) I carefully measured out .5 cups of Light Cream power and .5 cups of warm tap water. I also mixed in 1 cup of ExtraBond for the base coat; this is to help it stick to pre-painted surfaces.

Even after stirring really well, there were a few grainy bits. I wanted them there since I was going for that look, but you can strain the paint through a pair of nylons if you want to get rid of them.

The first coat went on pretty smoothly. About 30 minutes into it I had to run and get some water to thin it out with because it thickens up quickly and becomes hard to spread. Keep a paint stick handy too – you’ll need to mix it about every 10-15 minutes.

STEP 3: FIX YOUR MISTAKES

After two hours, I went back to check on things and see if it was totally dry. It was, but I quickly noticed that the edges were bubbling and peeling. In my hours o’ prep work, I managed to forget to sand the shiny gold paint that was used on the very edges of the drawers. Ooops….

DOH. Frustrated, I peeled off every bit of milkpaint I could, including a few tiny bubbly spots on the drawer faces. I sanded the gold paint off the edges completely, and went back to mix a second coat of paint – this time, I added 3 tablespoons of Driftwood to the Light Cream, to darken it up. I used ExtraBond on this one too, since I was having adhesion problems and I’d removed all of the first coat at the edges.

STEP 4: FINAL COAT

I ended up doing 3 coats total; the last one had 6 tablespoons of Driftwood in it, and came out a nice tan/khaki color that is similar to a color found in our shower curtains. I love the finish. It’s ultra-flat with a tiny bit of graininess, and has nice subtle color variations throughout. It’s hard to get a good photo, but the one below (after 1 coat) gives you some idea as to the barely noticeable “streaks” of color you can produce:

I still have to clear coat it – since it’s going to be in the bathroom I want to be sure it’ll hold up to water and the occassional flying mascara wand. But just for fun, we set it up in it’s new home for a photo:

There’s another step we’re mulling over… what to do with the top of it. Currently, it has some type of old-fashioned laminate surface on it. It’s not in bad shape, but the color is a bit to yellow for my taste. We knew paint wouldn’t stick well or be durable enough, so that’s out. It has to be something thin, since the plumbing and faucet height don’t give us much wiggle room. We’re thinking of trying to cut a piece of veneer to match – stained and coated, of course. Anyone have a creative solution to our vanity-top dilemna?

As always, more photos on our Flickr account – http://flickr.com/photos/fixerupper/