Weathered Gray Wood Look Vanity Makeover
A vanity gets a weathered gray wood look using just chalk paint and wax. Looks so much like real weathered wood in less time with less mess!
Yup. We’re almost there, y’all. The final oh-my-gosh-is-this-powder-room-ever-going-to-be-finished stage?! I say that lovingly. It’s hard to be patient when you have a bathroom vanity sitting smack in the middle of your living room. For an entire month. And you have to climb a flight of stairs every single time you need a potty break.
(Want to see our powder room’s final reveal? Click here for the full “after” tour.)
If you’ve been following along on my Instagram Stories, you probably already know that we survived and it’s done! Huzzah!
But I just know that when I share the reveal of the whole space next week, I’ll get a bunch of questions about our presto change-o vanity, so I’m jumping right on it to spill the quick tutorial if you’re needing to give your own bathroom vanity a perk.
The vanity in our existing powder room when we moved in was already on the new-ish side. The only problem was it had just enough scrapes and nicks that I couldn’t leave it as-is. I’m no stranger to painting furniture to look like wood (thank you “wood” guest bed and “wood” sofa table), so I thought I’d try it all over again, except with a weathered gray wood tone this time instead of brown.
How to Create a Weathered Gray Wood Look with Chalk Paint
Supplies Used: (Some affiliate links are provided below for convenience.)
- Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in French Linen
- Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Wax in Black
- Wax brush
- Dry lint-free rag
The whole painting thing started out by accident. With the wood of this vanity being already in pretty good shape, my original plan was to gray wash the wood with 1 part gray paint and 3 parts water. But since this vanity didn’t have any raised wood grain, it just wasn’t doing it for me. I should have taken a picture, but I managed to gray wash it at 10:00 at night when it was dark out… and trust me, you’re not missing anything.
So I wiped it down with Simple Green and lightly sanded off my not-so-pretty gray wash attempt to go the chalk paint route. (If you prefer Fusion Mineral Paint, you can create the same look with their Bedford paint color and Homestead House Black Wax. I just didn’t have those on hand at the time.)
1. Just paint on two coats of the Annie Sloan French Linen paint.
2. And, after the paint has fully dried, work in small sections (about 2-3 square feet) to rub on the black wax, using the wax brush to work it into any crevices and details. Then, lightly wipe away any excess with a dry rag. The process is almost like painting on the wax but with a little more elbow grease.
Here’s a video by Marian Parsons, if you’ve never waxed furniture before and need more of a visual.
It’s literally a two step process. Well, I guess four, if you actually count adding knobs and hauling the ginormous thing back into the bathroom. I knocked it all out in 2 hours and made it a rush job since I only had hours to complete it before our flooring contractor had to put the room back together after finishing the flooring.
(I did mention this vanity has sat in our living room for a month, right? And I didn’t decide to paint it until hours before it needed to be moved. Procrastinators of the world unite! …tomorrow.)
The photos don’t look much different than the faux wood finishes I’ve painted before, but this one does have more of a gray tone. Blame the photographer (a.k.a. me).
It really does look like weathered wood, doesn’t it?! And it didn’t require messy wood stripping and hours of staining in the garage or anything. If you’ve been following this blog for a year-ish or more, this method is totally old news, but it’s a goodie.
Between the coffee bar, this vanity, our foyer chest, and our bedroom furniture, I’ve been on a wood furniture kick lately. What’s that about? It’s so strange to me how different my style is in this house compared to our last house that was all anything-and-everything-painted.
I think it’s the simplicity. No matter how many beautiful colors a piece can be painted, there’s just something about the natural elegance of wood, even if it is the pretend kind.
I’m starting to discover that I’m drifting some from the farmhouse vibe and throwing in more traditional styles. Not sure if it’s me getting older or just this new house that doesn’t seem to fit into that farmhouse category quite as easily. I’m just letting this place speak to me, and that’s the direction it’s telling me to go.
Once I photograph more of this sorta farmhouse, sorta city powder room, it’ll be in the books to post about next week!
If you’ve missed any of the progress so far, you can see this space’s transformation from the beginning in these previous posts:
- Powder Room Design Plan and Before Shot
- Vintage Green Bead Board
- Beginner’s Guide to Hanging Wallpaper
- Faux Marble Tile Floor
I cannot wait to share it with y’all! It’s like a little vacation every time I walk into our powder room now. I legitimately do a tiny victory dance every time I walk past it. And as pretty as it is, it’s mostly because I no longer have to climb stairs as often every day… or have a sink smack in the middle of the living room.
It’s the little things that bring the biggest joy, right?
I love love love the vanity colors. I will be attempting this on the base of a pedestal table. My question is why does the French linen sample not look at all like the 2 coats of yours? I just want to make sure I do it like you did. Thanks!
Hi. I think the confusion and hesitation is always in the color in the bottle. The paint is more of a top coat that dries and looks very different than when applied.
Is it actually more gray than brown? In my eyes it looks brownish but that might just be me. Did you use clear wax or just put the black wax strait over the paint? Did you top it with clear wax?
It does have a brownish look to it for sure. The steps and material used here are as listed. Nothing additional. But good question. ☺️
I love your weathered wood look vanity and plan to do pretty much the same thing on a side table. However, in most of the videos I have seen they recommend using clear wax first before a dark wax because it helps it wipe off more easily. Just wondering if you ever do this or if it is an unnecessary step. I have Jolie clear and dark waxes on hand already. Thanks so much.
Hi Joan! Usually, furniture refinishers use clear wax before dark wax just as a subtle aging technique. That’s why it’s best to use a clear wax first for that kind of look. But in this case, you want the dark wax to be really dark and not subtle at all. So no clear wax is needed for this.
Looks beautiful!! I clicked on the picture in the beginning of this blog on another website because it looked like more of a brown tone. In the bathroom photo it looks more gray. I understand lighting plays a role and the gray is beautiful. Unfortunately gray won’t work in my bathroom. Any suggestions on what other Annie Sloan color to use as a base for more of weathered “brown” look.
I haven’t used any that have a brown undertone, so I may not be the best help here! But I will say if you find a color that you like, search it on Google or Pinterest to see it used in real places! I hope that helps 🙂
For the bathroom vanity project did you use clear wax before applying the black wax or just straight black wax over the french linen paint? My son’s bathroom has a vanity that looks like your original one and I’m dying to change it 🙂 Thank you! Connie
Nope! Just straight dark wax over the French linen. If you use clear wax first it will prevent the dark wax from being as deep.