DIY Vanity Desk Makeover | Magnolia Home + Amy Howard

I have spent years lusting over pictures of vanities on Pinterest. I have just always wanted a beautiful place to sit and do my hair and makeup in the morning.

For Christmas this year, my mom found me a refinished desk (and chair) on Craigslist. It was beautiful and the shades of Grey actually perfectly matched my duvet cover. Unfortunately, the person who refinished the desk, didn't do any kind of sanding or stripping and painted latex paint over the already existing varnish. With the the slightest scratch, the paint would just peel right off.

Even so, my vanity has become my happy place. I love starting my day there.

We knew pretty much from day one that we would need to refinish the desk and my mom agreed that as soon as the weather warmed up that she would come over and help with the project. I really wasn't in a super big hurry, though.

Cut to last week, I happened to be in ACE Hardware and saw Joanna Gaines' Magnolia Home paint colors. I fell in LOVE with Ella Rose. My favorite color of all time is light dusty blush pink. I was drooling over several shades wishing that I lived in a house I could paint instead of my apartment, when it dawned on my that I did in fact have a project that I could use the paint on- my vanity.

I decided to use Amy Howard One Step paint and tinted it to the color Ella Rose. This paint boasts that not sanding or stripping in necessary, but I went ahead and sanded anyway to be safe. I'm such a fan of Amy Howard's paint, it goes on smoothly and really goes a long way.

We sanded the desk and chair down to bare wood, so the repainting process went really smoothly. I decided to stain and not paint the top of the desk and used Rust-Oleum's stain in Kona, which is a deep chocolate color. I think it paired really nicely with the Ella Rose color. I sealed the whole thing with Miniwax's Polycrylic in a satin finish.

I decided not to recover the chair cushion yet, I haven't found anything I like better and I think it ties in nicely to the color of my duvet cover. I bought the new drawer pulls on Amazon and I really like the look of them.

pics

Over all, I'm so happy with how this project turned out. A makeover has made my happy place, even happier.