Free Craigslist Vanity {Furniture Makeover}

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Flipping furniture for profit can be like hunting treasure. It’s not often that I manage to score completely free furniture, but when I do, I’m ecstatic.

Other people I know seem to always be finding things in the alleyways (yes, we have alleys in Texas just like on “King of the Hill”) or in some apartment complex dumpster.  But for whatever reason, my luck typically doesn’t extend that far.

The winds of furniture makeover change must have been blowing in my direction though about 3 months ago when a friend spotted a free antique vanity on Craigslist. It was in the town north of where I live, and luckily enough, I happened to be already in the car with no kids in tow (a kid-free, carseat-free van is essential to a successful furniture haul) when I got the text.

Even more luckily, I was actually only about 3 blocks away from the address where this free vanity was located (I had taken the morning to drive over to the only nearby Winco to do some heavy-duty grocery shopping).

Even with 2 things going for me, I was still expecting for the free vanity to be gone by the time I showed up. Amazingly enough though, the kind gentleman still had it and even helped me load it into my van.

The unfortunate part of this story is that I completely forgot to take a “before” picture of this vanity!  But, you can imagine that if someone is willing to give away a piece of furniture for completely free, it probably has some issues.

Well, that was the case with this vanity.  It had a mirror but the mirror attachment had long ago broken off; large hunks of veneer were missing from the top and from the base, and the drawers were sticky and just plain nasty.  But hey–free is free!

I went with my go-to plan for this vanity–sand down and salvage the wood top with a new coat of stain, then paint the body.  The top isn’t perfect (there are still spots of missing veneer), but it has been given a new life, and the base went from dark and dirty to light and elegant.

Isn’t it lovely!

The base I painted in a custom mix of Fusion Mineral Paint, mixing 2 parts Lily Pond to 1 part Casement. (Do you know about Fusion Mineral Paint yet?)

After two coats of my custom mix, I added a wash of Casement over the entire piece, then taped off the drawer fronts to hand-paint some additional detail.

You may not be able to tell from the front photos, but this piece actually as a beautiful inward curve on its front facade.

With a little TLC and a new vision, this throw-away vanity is now a statement piece.

And the Fusion paint made this makeover as easy as ever–a light sanding to start, then two coats, a quick sanding of very find sand paper to finish, then done.  No waxing, no topcoat, and still a very hard, waterproof, painted surface.

I did apply two coats of Fusion’s Tough Coat (which is their non-yellowing polyurethane sealer) to the refinished top, but not to the base as it’s not necessary to seal the paint.  The acrylic resin inside the Fusion paint seals itself and provides a superior durability for everyday wear and tear situations.

Are you motivated now to hunt down some furniture headed for the dump?  Free or garbaged pieces may need a little more fixing, but many times they are still worth the effort.  This desk is so sturdy and solid, it just needed a little love to look pretty again.

As always, if you are interested in learning more about Fusion Mineral Paint you can click here and even order your own to try by clicking here.

Good luck on your own furniture makeover hunts this week!