DIY Bathroom Vanity Makeover with Fusion Mineral Paint

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I want to share with you all a few more pictures of the progress I am making on our upstairs boys’ bath DIY renovation.

A few days ago I walked through the process of installing the board and batten trim to the walls.

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Now I want to show you the work we’ve done on the bathroom vanity cabinet and countertop.

Prepping the Bathroom Vanity

We started with your standard, honey-oak builder grade cabinets–they’re so lovely and all of the cabinets in my house look just like them. Despite being a gross color and generally out of date though, they were in good condition and worth keeping.  

Taking out the vanity cabinets would have opened up a whole can of renovation worms–new flooring, wall-repair, etc.–so working with the existing vanity cabinets was the way to go.

It’s time for Fusion Mineral Paint to the rescue!

Because it cures up to be waterproof and highly durable Fusion is a great cabinet paint option.  There are fewer prep steps too when using Fusion for cabinets than when using latex or oil-based paint, and Fusion leaves a very smooth finish.

To prep the vanity for paint I first wiped it down well with a degreaser, then gave it a very light sanding (like 5 minutes with some medium grit sandpaper)

And like I said in my last post, the most important prep step for any painted woodworking project is filling in your seams!

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I took the extra 20 minutes of prep to fill in the cabinet seams on each side with wood filler. Once the filler dried, I sanded it smooth with fine grit sandpaper, so now the paint finish will be seamless and the crack won’t show through.

Painting the Vanity

The color I chose for the makeover was Fusion Mineral Paint Homestead Blue. It’s a darker blue, but not quite navy. 

I tried applying the paint with both a brush and a foam roller, and honestly I think the finish was smoother with a brush.

I painted thin coats, making sure to paint in the same direction of the oak wood grain.

Homestead Blue consistently has exceptional coverage. Here it is with just one coat:

DIY bathroom vanity makeover

And notice you can’t see the seam because of the step I took with the wood filler.

After the first coat dried, I brushed one a second, light coat of paint, and here is the result:

DIY bathroom vanity makeover

The doors are still in process, but you can get the idea 🙂  The paint is gorgeous!  So smooth to the touch and the paint has filled in a lot wood grain as well, which gives the cabinets a much more modern look.

And the deep blue color is really going to look fantastic paired with the white board and batten and light green walls.

So now for the vanity top . . . well that part of the story is a little more complicated.

Cedar DIY Vanity Top

For renovation ease as well as for budget reasons, I purchased a simple, one-piece white vanity top at Home Depot about 2 months ago.  I had measured the vanity, and found this perfect, standard white vanity top.

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Except it wasn’t quite so perfect once we finally took it out of the box and hauled it upstairs to install–it was actually 1.5″ too wide for the space. My bad.

After considering some really non-professional ways we could still install and use the top, we decided it would be better to just return it and start with a new plan.

Unfortunately, I quickly discovered that since our vanity cabinet is a non-standard size, our only other option for a stone vanity top would be to have one custom ordered . . . which meant a significant increase in what we would have to spend.

So we decided a custom, stone vanity top was probably not the way to go.

That’s when my husband suggested we fabricate our own vanity top using some of the crazy amount of leftover cedar wood we have from replacing part of our fence back last fall.  

A quick Google search found inspiration from lots of other DIY’ers who have made their own vanity tops from cedar and other wood, so that became our new plan.

It really was simple enough–measure out a base piece of plywood for the vanity top, then top it with the leftover cedar pickets cut to size.

DIY bathroom vanity makeover

My husband glued down the cedar pickets to the plywood base and clamped each one overnight, so we wouldn’t have any nail or screw holes visible in the top.

I used one of my leftover poplar boards from the board and batten to trim out the front and it basically was a perfect fit.  I stained the top with three coats of Minwax Classic American and sealed in between the planks with clear caulk.

To seal the surface of the wood we’ve been applying a highly durable marine varnish and letting each coat set overnight.

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You can find a similar product here on Amazon, if this particular Cabot brand marine varnish is not in stock at your local hardware store. 

To help balance the rustic quality of the wooden top I wanted to find a more angular sink, rather than a basic oval sink.  

We ended up purchasing the Kohler Cimmaron sink online.

DIY bathroom vanity makeover

It’s the perfect size for the space and has just enough of a rectangular shape to help make the space feel more modern and less like a log cabin.

So, once the last coat of varnish finally finishes drying we can take the top upstairs, drop in the faucet, and finally have running water in the bathroom again!  

I know the Homestead Blue, cedar top, and white sink are all going to look fantastic together.

So that’s where I’m at so far in my DIY Bathroom renovation.  I think I first started pulling off wallpaper in February, so that makes it, hmm . . . 4 months since I started? Maybe it will be finished before another 4 months pass by!

I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend.  And best to you in your own current DIY projects!

See the final renovation “after” photos here.  

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mollie burd

Friday 19th of June 2015

Hi Melanie, I am really looking hard for another paint line to do my furniture for selling. Can you send me a link to purchase the Fusion?

Melanie

Friday 19th of June 2015

Hi Mollie. You can purchase Fusion from my website, either by clicking on the top menu bar that says "Buy Fusion Mineral Paint" or by clicking here. Thanks!!

Barbara Ann

Monday 25th of May 2015

Can you please tell me how much paint you used to paint the cabinet? My stepdaughter just bought her first home, a small condo. She wants her kithen cabinets painted. This paint sounds like it would be great. It is small I think I could estimate based on how much you used. Also any S.Calif distributors? Barbara Ann etsy.com / shop / barbaraannscreations

Melanie

Tuesday 26th of May 2015

Hi Barbara Ann! Fusion has excellent coverage and so it really goes a long way. For this vanity I used about 1/4 of a pint of paint. Of course, some colors have better coverage than others, so it depends on what color she is thinking about using for her cabinets. I am not sure about a S. California distributor, but you can search for local retailers on the Fusion Mineral Paint website. I ship all throughout the US so if there isn't a local retailer I will be happy to be her Fusion Merchant :)

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