Unfortunately relocating internationally meant I had to leave most of my lovingly restored vintage and antique furniture behind in Berlin, fortunately I’m slowly but surely replacing it and furnishing my new Toronto home with upcycled roadside finds, thrift scores and garage sale beauties like this:
This vintage vanity was in pretty good condition but definitely needed a bit of a fix. Take a peek at how I updated this mid-century stunner with a quick vintage vanity makeover + how to reupholster a seat:
(and also help me decide if I should transform it with a fresh coat of paint or not)
The wood is all in tip top shape but the seat absolutely needed a new cover and those drawer knobs had really seen better days.
I removed the seat and carefully pulled out the rusty old nails holding the torn fabric in place.
After ensuring that the padding was still in good shape I grabbed some sturdy fabric, placed the seat face down on top of it and tightly secured the longest sides with a staple gun.
When reupholstering a square chair seat I usually save the corners for last but as this one was a trapezoid so I thought it might be safer to fold and secure them next.
Hooray! Perfect gift wrap corners!
Once all 4 corners were stapled in place I stretched and attached the remaining side fabric.
Et voila! My pretty new seat cushion was complete!
Vintage furniture is such high quality and the seats are so easy to remove and recover (or even replace) you should never pass up a great deal – or roadside find!
Once the seat was sorted out I dug through one of my boxes from Berlin and replaced those manky old drawer pulls with the pretty porcelain knobs that I had gotten from the flea market for my DIY kitchen.
A quick and easy makeover that looks fab beside my upcycled copper pipe clothing rack however I’m still not sure about the colour. Should I give that vintage vanity a fresh new look and if so with what? I’m loving the finish of chalk paint and am seriously considering a pastel blue or blush pink. Thoughts?
Keep your vintage wooden beauties in top condition with my thrifty tips for cleaning wood.
Grab all of my tutorials for the nest right here and always remember new to you is still new!
Continue your passion for refashion with my Confessions of a Refashionista e-book series:
I’m into white paint lately. It really freshens furniture up & would make the upholstery & drawer pulls pop. It can also be distressed for a more weathered look.
I also like the wood as is and feel it would be a shame to cover it up. However, if you do decide to paint, perhaps you could only paint parts of it, like the base but leave the tops and drawer fronts as wood. Just a thought.
Great idea Mea!
What did you decide to do with this vanity? Did you paint it?
I still haven’t found the time to do anything with it beyond what I’ve already done – refinishing and painting it is a massive job so it’ll have to wait until time (& money for materials) magically appear 😉 it’s completely fine as-is for now
I’m not a fan of painting over real wood furniture. I know it’s a thing now, but that’s so beautiful, my vote would be to just clean it up with some cider vinegar and olive oil.
I agree, I wouldn’t paint over such nice wood, as it seems in good condition.
I love the warm, cozy look of vintage wood as well and am currently on the hunt for a sleigh bed in a complimentary finish to the vanity – if I’m able to find one (vintage, of course) I’ll most likely not paint the vanity 😉
I’m really torn about painting, I’ve been giving it weekly polishing with olive oil and it’s really helping to restore the less than stellar areas of the wood 🙂
What a great find! I like your fabric choice for the seat. I’d vote for painting it. A pale blue sounds lovely but I think the decision to paint or not depends on what else you have going on in the room.
I’m still deciding on my room colours/decor 😉 I’m hoping this vanity will kinda push me in the right direction…