Wood Finished Vanity

February 7, 2024 in Decor, DIY's

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*This post is not sponsored in any way. I purchased all the products used with my own money.

Several years ago, I did a faux wood look technique on my boys bathroom vanity using chalk paint and a glaze. They say hindsight is 20/20, and given that this is my boys bathroom, I probably should have applied a couple more coats of polycrylic to seal and preserve the finish better.

My boys bathroom after its makeover 4 years ago.

Fast forward almost 4 years and the finish has started to chip and show signs of wear in the most used areas.

The vanity is chipping, especially in the most used areas. This was a faux wood technique using chalk paint and glaze.

I was updating the boys bathroom (see all the details here) and knew the vanity would need to be addressed. Since the existing vanity is structurally sound, rather than replace it, I decided to freshen it up. I still wanted it to have a wood look- I love the wood tones of the Pottery barn pieces, and used those as my inspiration . I did some searching, and found a paint product that you can apply a non-penetrating stain to and achieve a wood finish.

The paint is from Retique It and is made up of 60% wood product. It comes in a few different shades depending on the final color finish you want. I chose the color LIGHT. I actually purchased their kit that includes a stain, I chose the color Briarwood, but I only bought the small size kit and ended up needing more base coat, so I ordered a separate larger base coat in the same color: light.

The Retique product has easy to follow steps: clean, prime, grain, stain, seal. You can find instructions on their site also.

First step: cleaning the vanity. I followed the product instructions and cleaned my vanity using Krud Kutter. I then filled the old hardware holes with a wood filler since I would be changing out the existing hardware. Once the wood filler was dry, I sanded it down and wiped down everything one last time to remove any sanding dust.

This was after one coat of the Retique It base coat. Giving the old hardware holes a final sanding.

Next step is to “prime it”. This is applying the “wood paint” (aka base paint) product. I applied the base paint using a paintbrush. I brushed it on in the direction of the natural wood grain. I ended up needing three coats total for complete coverage. I made sure to allow the paint to dry thoroughly between coats. (Removing the drawers and doors will make the process much easier, but I didn’t have a place to put them where they wouldn’t be bumped or touched, so I worked around it.)

The next step is OPTIONAL. “Grain it” is applying wood grain to the surface using a wood graining tool (separate purchase). I chose to skip this step. I didn’t want a the look of heavily grained finish.

After the third coat, still drying in some areas.

Once the paint was dry it’s time to “stain it”. I applied the stain in the color Briarwood. They recommend 1-3 coats depending on the amount of color you want to achieve. The more coats the darker the final color will appear. I wanted a lighter shade, so I applied one coat. I applied it with a paint brush and in the direction of the wood grain. I allowed the stain to dry completely.

Applying the stain in the color Briarwood.

Once the stain is dry, it’s time to “seal it”. I applied one coat of a matte finish polycrylic. I applied it with a paint brush.

After it dried, I decided I wanted the overall color to be a little lighter and more like the driftwood/seadrift finish on many of the Pottery Barn pieces. I found a can of a whitewash stain from Rove+Dwell that I had on hand from a prior project, and applied one coat of it with a brush, applying it in the direction of the wood grain.

The Rove+Dwell stain has a topcoat built in so I didn’t need to apply any extra polycrylic- but you could always apply 1-2 coats of sealer if the item you are working on is frequently used and you want to provide an extra durable finish.