Vanity area transformation!

I'm back! In December I began working as a children's librarian (can you say dream job?), so my ability to do blog-worthy projects has been curtailed. Having said that this one might be my all-time favorite. We've lived in our home for just under 9 years, and this project marks the final banishment of all of the orange-ish oak. I'm not an "oak hater" or an "oak screams 90s" person, but I only like oak in certain settings and this vanity was not one of them.

This was another project that rapidly turned from "oh this will be done in a weekend" to "oops," but the finished product has me all smiles. Previously this area just felt awkward and incomplete. The basic cabinets were topped by a large frameless mirror. My original plan was to try out a product from "mirror mates" and frame the mirror myself, but in the end I decided to go for easy and just replace the mirror, and it ultimately ended up costing less than a framing kit would have. The vanity finish is the gray gel stain from General Finishes. Disclaimer: this stain has a strong blue hint. It works in my space, but is not what I was expecting at all. It also went on more like a paint than a stain. When the doors and drawer fronts were in my kitchen I was really hesitant about the color, but this area doesn't get much natural light, so I think it works.

 

The bin pulls are from Pottery Barn and the knobs are from Lowes. The mirror is from Home Goods and cost about 10% of what I had budgeted, woo! The faucet is on my mental "replace this" list, but our plumber has advised that we keep our current fixtures, as he says the way faucets are made has changed and not for the better. I have no inside information on whether this is true, but since my current plumbing fixture budget is zero dollars I've decided to believe him. In my dreams the carpet is gone, but once again keeping the existing flooring is free, so the price is definitely right. We'll likely change out the frame on the calla lily picture, or replace it with something else from my stash or a free printable.

Thanks for reading!