DIY – Malm Vanity Makeover – White and Gold Vanity

As many of you know, I’ve been working on my beauty room/office all year. I feel like it’s a never ending project but this weekend I got a little closer to being finished. I brought in my old Malm vanity from Ikea (if you guys recall, it used to be black) and decided to give it a facelift, mainly so it would match the rest of my white furniture. 

I originally thought I was just going to paint the entire thing white tbh but at the last minute I decided to paint the drawer gold. Why? Well… Why not?
Oh, and even more last minute I decided to add white pearls to the entire top part of the dresser. Why?? Well… because I messed up the paint and tried re-sanding and re-painting and it looked worse than it did before…so I covered it up. There was no way I  was going to give up after getting that far. So the pearls were out of necessity but I think it turned out pretty special :). 
Or maybe I’ve convinced myself it was a success after devoting 2 hours of my life to glueing what seemed like thousands of tiny pearls.
What I used: 

1. Sand Paper
2. 2 Cans of Valspar Primer (Lowes)
3. 3 Cans of Valspar White Glossy Spray Paint (Lowes)
4. 1 Can of Design Master “Gold Medal” Spray Paint (Home Depot)
5. 1 Can of Valspar High Gloss Finishing Spray Paint (Lowes)
6. White Pearls (Hobby Lobby)
7. E6000 Glue for the pearls (Hobby Lobby)
8. Glitter Paper  to put under the glass (Hobby Lobby)
9. Something to protect your floors from spray paint (I used Nalas old potty pads that she never used, they were just collecting dust in the garage).

This was my first time ever painting a piece of furniture so I was sort of learning as I went.
First I sanded all the sides to prep them for painting. Then with a clean damp cloth I wiped it down. I sprayed two thin coats of primer with 30 minute of dry time between coats. I waited another 30 minutes and added my first coat of white spray paint and waited an hour for that to dry before I added the second coat. Once it was dry (about an hr later) I added the high gloss finishing spray.
I followed the same steps for the drawer. 
Once I was finished with the paint, I brought the vanity inside and added the glitter paper under the glass. You can find all kinds of glitter paper at Hobby Lobby in the scrap book section.
While I was adding the glitter paper I accidentally scraped the paint above the drawer, OMG I wanted to cry!! I pulled myself together and took it back outside and repeated the painting process in the damaged section but when it was dry it looked terrible! I guess it would’ve been ok if I was going for the “Distressed” look… I wasn’t… 

I started to think of ways to cover it up or make it work and after exploring my options I decided on pearls.



Remember these prints that I made a couple of months back and posted on my IG? My plans were to make a gallery wall but I changed my mind completely and added this little workspace instead. 
I created both of these prints using PicMonkey

I also painted that LOL! trinket that I found at Marshall’s; it used to be silver. 


I am very pleased with the way it turned out. It’s going to be my permanent blogging/photography editing area. I was tired of having cables all over the other desk in this room (the one I keep my makeup  on). So now I keep all of my lenses and DSLR in that pretty gold box (from Homegoods) and all of my arts and crafts supplies are in the drawer.


Since I don’t have chair for it yet, this little cube from my living room will do!

 Hope this post inspires you to tackle that long dreaded project you’ve been putting off 😉

xo Liz ♥

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Read Comments
  1. Thania

    looks gorgeous!

  2. Nadia KinkyWithIt

    Omg love it!!! It's so chic & glam. I would of probably used a ribbon, or fabric trim for the damaged part. but they pearls add a very feminine touch. I think it turned our great!!

    • Liz H.

      Thank you! Ribbon was the first thing that came to mind but I didn't have any handy, it would have been way easier lol

  3. WithLoveAdia

    omg this is brilliant

    • Liz H.

      I am so glad you like it! Thank you.

  4. Krystal

    It looks so nice! Love this idea!

  5. Sun City Style

    That desk is gorgeous! What an amazing job!

  6. Jenny

    Love your vanity, it looks so chic! This post is great motivation for me to finish decorating the rest of my house!

    xoxo,
    Jenny @ Geeky Posh

    • Liz H.

      Awww so good to hear! I know it's tough to tackle those big projects sometimes, but once you get stared you will be on a roll! Good luck with the rest of your decorating 🙂

  7. nanyloah

    You're so creative!! I love it 🙂

  8. Jen K

    The gold drawer is so pretty! I'm glad you decided to do that. I'm currently reworking my office space as well, but my theme is white and silver. 🙂

    Jen
    http://www.lifeunrefined.com

    • Liz H.

      White and silver is going to turn out beautiful! I hope you share your finished project 🙂

  9. Cindy Quero

    What are those pearl things you got?? and where can I get it? Btw that vanity DIY is gorge!!!!

    http://www.cindyslittleblackbook.com

  10. Constance Hymon

    Hi Liz I love your blog and instagram your creavity is amazing and you inspire me so much. I wanted know what specific E600 glue you used for gluing the pearls on your desk there are so many here at hobby Lobby is it this one http://shop.hobbylobby.com/assets/1/14/DimRegular/718981_1.jpg can you please let me know!!!!! Also I think a home tour would be great!!!!