When we first moved in to our new house, I was SO excited by the larger size of our bedroom and immediately found the perfect space for a vanity/makeup table. This wasn’t something I had at our previous apartment, so I was excited to have a dedicated getting-ready space that wasn’t the bathroom! I spent a lot of time looking online for various options that would work with our style/space, but everything was just too pricey for our current budget. Maybe eventually we’ll upgrade to something else, but in the mean time, this $25 DIY vanity is the perfect addition to our bedroom space!
We kind of just stumbled on this design as alternative to buying something, because I found a piece of hobby wood in our garage that we bought ages ago for our wedding, but didn’t end up using. It was a 1″x 15 x 45″ board (that we cut to 36″) and looked like it would be the perfect fit for our space. I thought about building braces out of wood to attach it to the wall, but then I found these wonderful white shelf brackets at Lowes for $10 each! What a steal! Overall, it’s a super simple design, but it does the job, and was a really simple project that has become an integral part of my morning routine!
*Update, in addition to a makeup table, with the COVID-19 situation, this has also temporarily become another work-from-home space in our house, and it’s extremely helpful when Brian needs to use our other desk downstairs! Great timing!!
SUPPLIES
- Pine board, cut to fit your space. Ours ended up being 36″ long by 16″ deep. We purchased this wood from the “hobby wood” section of Lowes, because it’s already sanded and planed, so you don’t really need to do anything other than get it cut! We used our table saw, but you can also ask the Lowes people to cut it for you!
- Two heavy duty shelf brackets from Lowes. You could probably find similar brackets on Amazon as well.
- Tape measure
- Drill and drill bits
- Level (not pictured)
- Stud finder (not pictured)
- Flat head wood screws (make sure the length of screw is less than the thickness of your pine board)
- Pencil – just to mark where you want it on the wall!
- Optional: Paint or Stain if you don’t want to keep the natural wood colour.
STEP 1: Determine where you want your brackets to go
This took us a while to figure out because we didn’t have a stud finder at first. But once we bought one, we were able to find two studs to drill into. The placement wasn’t ideal. I initially wanted the brackets further apart, but once we changed the placement of the brackets (opposite of what’s in the photo above) and had the short part attached to the wood and long part attached to the wall, it was tucked in enough not to hit your legs when you sit down. And you could totally use a longer piece of pine to give you more flexibility with stud placement, but we have balcony door that opens into the space beside the desk, so it needed to be small enough so the door wouldn’t hit it!
Once you figure out where you want them, mark the screw holds with pencil so you can line them up when you’re ready to drill them in!
I based the height on the height of the stool I’m currently using. But I eventually want to swap out for a better chair, so we made it a little higher just in case. It ended up being 29″ high, and with the 1″ board, 30″ in total.
STEP 2: Secure brackets to the wall and make sure they are level
Using a drill, secure the brackets to the wall in the spaces you marked out. We did one at a time, and checked to make sure they were straight and level so the wood would sit flat.
(OPTIONAL) STEP 3: Paint or stain your wood
I might do this eventually, but for now I’m leaving the natural pine finish. The other furniture in our room is teak, so I might end up staining it a darker stain, or paint it white to match the walls if I get bored of the pine. The options are endless!
Secure the wood to the brackets from below
From underneath the desk, use your drill and wood screws to secure the wood to the brackets.
And there you go! A super simple vanity or work-from home desk! So far I’m loving this space so much. You could easily hang a wall mirror over the desk, but I love my little standing mirror, plus it faces our big floor-length mirror across from it, so I get a great view of the back of my head when I’m styling my hair! It’s a #lifehack I didn’t know I needed!
I styled this simply to start, but I’m excited to have this as another area to switch up the decor on, and style with artwork and plants! And I love how well it works with my rattan wall hooks and little DIY plant hanger!
Let me know if you have questions or decide to make something similar!
Cheers!
Julie
No Comments