Marketplace find

We chose the DIY approach to create a unique vanity for the studio bathroom using a vintage dresser. As with many marketplace finds this piece had some damage that wasn’t visible in listing photos. I see these types of tables all the time but this piece had unique corner details and bevels on the marble that I liked. The damage was actually helpful in that I didn’t feel as bad about destroying the piece’s use as a dresser/vanity!

Marble refinishing & Making room for Plumbing

The marble on this piece sits on top, so we needed to drill a hole for the drain and a hole for the faucet… we later learned the drainhole was a bit narrow and had to redo it. While we were doing that we refinished the surface with a drill and marble wet sanding discs. (This had a bit of a learning curve and I had to do it again bc after it dried I didn’t like the finish.) We marked and cut new plywood to create a section where the plumbing could drop down past the drawer, meaning we can still use the drawer instead of it becoming a false drawer.

Staining and Sealing

After sanding and patching any losses in the wood – I chose a darker stain to mask any issues and finished it with a sealer since it will be in a potentially moist environment.

A Surprise Interior

This was probably my favorite part of the project. I knew I didn’t like the way the new plywood didn’t match the original wood of the dresser so I found a contact paper to line the piece with. This piece has herons/cranes and blossoms and in the same colors as the space and adds such a fun surprise to this piece.

I won’t reveal the full install just yet, but we switched from brass rolling casters to leveling feet, and there’s some hints here at what it looks like set up with vessel sink and faucet.

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Want to see all the stages of building our new BTS HQ in the Hudson Valley? Find the whole series here BTS Studio Build

The next step in the Between the Sheet studio Project was installing floor and stair trim. This was another element of the Project we decided to DIY.

If I learned anything from this project it’s that Pattern making skills are surprisingly similar to carpentry skills. Planning ahead, careful measuring and cutting, and understanding how pieces fit together. For all the parts of the project that we managed it involved calculating materials ahead of time- I was worried that not knowing what I don’t know that I would be over or under and for the most part my typical way of calculating consumption in pattern making of adding 20% to accommodate for mistakes worked out in this project as well.

Painting the trim

Back to the smaller sprayer and the trim size bottle – using pre primed trim and an enamel self leveling paint. This combo with the sprayer gave the best finish and was so much easier and cleaner than trying to tape off and prevent bleeds between black trim and off white walls.

Start with the longest runs

In patternmaking you cut your largest pieces first. So my plan was to start with the longest runs because if we made a mistake we could always cut a board smaller but couldn’t make one longer. Puzzling together this gap/sill on the stairs and the entryway was probably the hardest part. Otherwise it all went relatively smoothly. I measured and marked, Josh made cuts with the miter saw, and I nailed them into place.

Finish nailer vs framing nailer

This is a good time to visit another change in tools needed – when we did the walls I used a framing nailer but here I needed a finishing nailer. For framing we knew we wouldn’t have electrical in yet so we got a battery powered framing nailer. For this finishing portion we opted to get a compressor and finishing nailer combo instead of a battery powered nailer. We added a lot of tools to our arsenal for this project but saved ourselves thousands doing so much of the project ourselves.

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Want to see all the stages of building our new BTS HQ in the Hudson Valley? Find the whole series here BTS Studio Build