Bathroom Vanity Makeover

After many requests...here it is!  My bathroom tutorials.  Almost every surface in the bathroom has been redone, but these are a few of my cleverest projects:

 - I painted the baby blue Formica counter top to resemble granite using a big sea sponge
 - I installed a glass tile blacksplash (for my first time!) without using mud or a tile saw
 - The flooring now consists of ripped up brown paper and Elmer's Glue (um, what????)

Okay... So, after I ripped every hideous object out of the bathroom, I attacked the vanity first.  I deglossed all the cabinet doors, drawer fronts and the cabinet itself so I could paint over the boring, 80's-style oak.  If you don't know what deglosser is, let me tell you...it is magical.  I hate sanding.  Everyone does.  I buy this kind from Home Depot, for like 8 bucks.  I would happily pay twice that to avoid sanding.  All you have to do is take an old rag, douse it with some deglosser and start scrubbing and rubbing.  Then wait until it dries (about 15 minutes or so) and do a second coat.  Degloss every surface you intend to paint...so, if that includes the inside too, keep scrubbing.  

You'll need to put a little muscle into it for the deglosser to work well, but it still beats sanding and paint remover and stripping varnish and other tasks that requires the patience I do NOT possess.  It not only takes off grease and dust and oil and 50 years worth of grime, but, most importantly, it takes off the glossy finish from the wood stain making it porous again...and paintable.  If you were to skip this step and just painted over the wood stain, it wouldn't stick well and then the first time your 3-year-old climbed up the cabinet to brush his teeth (do 3 year-olds do that?  I actually have no clue...) the paint would scratch off because it wouldn't have soaked into the wood at all... 

As I mentioned in a previous bathroom post, I painted the cabinet dark blu-ish gray, decided I hated it and then repainted the entire thing chocolate brown.  I used Behr paint for the whole bathroom.  I only ever use Behr paint and I buy it with the primer already mixed in.  It, too, is magical.  The exact color I used is "Dark Truffle."  Oooooh, I want some dark chocolate now... 

Before and after cabinets...pardon the mess.

The only thing I have left to do to the vanity is to add hardware to the drawers and such... I don't know why, but that has turned into an annoying to-do that I can't seem to make myself accomplish.  It's tedious and I'm impatient, but it'll get done...eventually.

Next up...the counters.  Wait, I just decided to break this tutorial into separate posts otherwise it will be monster-sized...keep reading for my Faux Granite Counter top tutorial!