DIY floating makeup table, revamped chair
When we were planning our daughter’s bedroom makeover, most of the discussions centred around the huge loft bed we were building.
But our daughter was even more excited about adding something else: a ‘real’ makeup table. Did I mention she’s four years old!? She’s literally closer in age to needing a crib than a tube of concealer.
I hoped she’d forget about the idea, but of course she didn’t. Since her massive loft bed was taking up a good portion of the room, I didn’t really want to add another piece of furniture.
So I compromised by building a floating makeup table — really just a tray attached to the wall — and redoing an old (free) chair to tuck beneath it.
I raided my pile of scrap wood and started by cutting some 1×2 boards into eight 20-inch sections — just a bit wider than the chair — to create a tabletop.
I screwed them into some more scraps of 1×2 to make a big planked rectangle, and then I screwed pieces of 2×2 around the outside as a frame. That way, if there were tubes of lip gloss all over the table, the raised edge would keep them from rolling onto the floor.
It was looking pretty ugly at this stage, I must admit. That’s what happens when you’re recycling painted and stained wood from three different projects!
The plan was always to paint the new makeup table and the chair — which I’d gotten for free as a hand-me-down — a beautiful custom pink.
The very first items I bought for the bedroom makeover, in fact, were the two colours of Fusion Mineral Paint I needed to mix this particular colour: Buttermilk Cream and Fort York Red.
I put on a podcast and absentmindedly mixed the two colours (half and half) to make the new shade. It was only after I’d painted everything that I stood back and realized something — it was totally not going to work in the room.
The colour was gorgeous, but the plan for the room had changed a lot since the early stages. Everything was softer and more muted than I’d originally planned, and I didn’t think about the fact that the pink makeup table and chair were supposed to be right next to the new dusty rose curtains. Ugh.
Time for Plan B.
Once the paint was dry, I put on another podcast and repainted everything with Buttermilk Cream. The soft yellow was perfect, and I only left a bit of the original pink — on the inside of the tray — for a pop of colour (and to convince myself the first coat hadn’t been a total waste of time). I also distressed the edges a little with sandpaper to go with the vintage curves of the chair.
I’d been saving a piece of the most beautiful floral cotton to recover the seat of the chair. It’s from the new Anne of Green Gables collection at Atlantic Fabrics and I’m obsessed with it. I wrapped it around the old red cushion, stapled it underneath and it was time to reattach it to the chair.
(Normally, if I was recovering a seat cushion, I’d use a more durable upholstery fabric. But since this chair isn’t going to be used in a kitchen or dining room, I think it will hold up just fine.)
I had a few scraps of the fabric leftover, so I brushed ModPodge onto a few rinsed-out tin cans and wrapped the fabric around them as a decoration. Now I had custom storage cups for holding makeup brushes and hair clips on the makeup table.
Installation was quick and easy. I pre-drilled through the back of the makeup ‘tray’ and used long screws to affix it to the beadboard on our daughter’s bedroom wall. I wouldn’t try sitting on it — and it certainly wouldn’t meet my husband’s high standards for securely fascinating something to the wall — but it works.
Our daughter was so excited to come home from a weekend at her grandma’s and see her new makeup table.
Actually, she was disappointed it didn’t contain more makeup — just lip gloss and some brushes to play around with — so we had to buy clear mascara and blush the next day. (Which was later confiscated since she kept coming downstairs looking like she had a severe rash on her face.)
Product sources:
Loft bed: Tutorial here
Wall colour: PPG’s “Pinot Noir” from Kent
Sunburst mirror: HomeSense
White photo frame: HomeSense
Floral jars: Tutorial coming soon!
Chair fabric: Anne of Green Gables collection at Atlantic Fabrics
Chair paint: Fusion Mineral Paint’s “Buttermilk Cream” from Phillips & Chestnut Victorian Salvage and Decor
As featured on …
Heather's Handmade Life 