Raising a Stencil

Hi Kids! Hope you are doing well. Today I’m going to follow through on showing you the vanity I painted for a quick re-do of the master bath. This isn’t the final phase. This bathroom will be redone when we get to the first floor. 

So… When I say ‘quick re-do’ I mean ‘Let’s experiment on something that will eventually be re-done’. As we work on the second floor of our home, I have been using the first floor as a ‘test kitchen’. Trying things on for size and practicing for the real thing. Either that or I’m just having fun painting something.

This is the master bathroom looking in from the laundry room.  There is also a door to the right leading to/from the master bedroom. (I included this info just in case you get confused looking at different pictures taken at different angles on the room)

As you can see, The vanity is a ‘beautiful’ faux blue wood grain. Must have been a thing back in the day. Which, by the way, I believe will be said about my new creations fifty years from now. But for now, All I saw was a canvas on which to do a new technique. And, since my husband thinks I’ll paint him if I don’t have ‘something’ to paint, all he saw was another day that he wouldn’t be painted.  So I have another happy experiment… Are you ready to hear about this one? Yes? Great! Let’s Go…

Here’s a reminder of the quick before and after. I initially painted the walls and ceiling and called it a day. 

Now that the laundry room is looking so pretty, the funky blue wood grained veneered vanity was screaming at me. I had seen a tutorial video that used stencils and a product called wood icing. Sounds yummy, right? I was itching to try it on something. It was available only through the stencil company, would take days to arrive and it was expensive. Now, I am thrifty and impatient. So I scoured the web that night to find an alternative.

Drywall compound and paint! Yes! Found it! And it was stuff I already had…

I got to work taking apart the vanity. Cleaned the surface, sanded enough to de-shine and cleaned off the dust. Primed and painted…

Now we’re ready for the fun experimental part of the program…

Chose stencils, positioned on doors and taped in place. Then smeared a mixture of spackle and paint.  Lifted stencil and let dry. I was getting excited. This was coming out better than I hoped.

After the spackle mixture dried, I lightly sanded to knock off high spots. Cleaned with a tack cloth then another coat of paint. Let dry. The design is raised just as high as the stencil is thick.

Then I wiped an antiquing glaze over the entire surface and wiped off with a damp shop towel. The glaze gets caught in the crevices and makes the design pop.

Fun new knobs were found at a craft store. And original hinges were spray painted. Re-esemble vanity and……

TA-DAA!!!

What do you think of this? A little better? Yeah, I can live with this for awhile.

Looks SO much brighter! It’s holding up well, also. Two years of steamy showers, Hairspray and rushing to get ready for work and it is showing no signs of wear. It cleans up easy and makes me smile

In fact, since ‘Phase 1’ of house renovation is taking longer to complete than expected and the kitchen is part of ‘Phase 2″, I decided to paint the kitchen cabinets like this as well. I know, I’m crazy. But remember?… ‘test kitchen’? Now it really is… 

And here’s a taste of things to come… I used this method on a closet armoir that Hubby made for our guest room. I’ll share details in a future post.

 Hope you enjoyed this episode of ‘What Can I Paint Today’. Can’t wait for tomorrow… Hope you all find a happy experiment you can enjoy as well.

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