Friday, June 21, 2013

Project: Build Me A Vanity

Rosebuds,

Being a freelance makeup artist has me constantly packing and unpacking my makeup kit. At times it can be a tedious task finding space to store and keep the products I'm not using organized and stationed. With every gig I find myself buying more products and having little to no space to keep it all without building clutter. It has been an idea for a while now to invest in a vanity/storage system for myself. However, when I thought about what type of vanity I wanted and how it would function for my needs I would feel overwhelmed.

To give myself a starting point I took 2 whole days to sort, clean and trash the makeup that was taking up usable space. My makeup mayhem was crazy. But once it was all cleaned I was now ready to go out a buy a vanity. But where do I start? There are so many options when selecting/creating  a vanity/ makeup station.  I figured the best option was to just create and customize my space. But this decision had me once again was overwhelmed and looking for another starting point.

If you're not sure Google it! lol Seeing all the fancy and not so fancy setups that others had created, made me see things differently. I needed a blueprint to layout the details of what I wanted.

The Blueprint
1. What's my allowed budget? 
2. Measured space available 
3. What's the look & design?
4. Storage unit setup (designed with additions in mind)

After identifying my needs against my wants I was ready to start shopping. I went to Ikea to start. There I checked out the Malam dressing table but it wasn't (to me) worth the price tag or the raves it has been given online. It's nice but was not what my space needed. Well, what's next? I did a search on "writing table" and found that the size would be a nice cuddly fit for my new makeup space.


So where would I get a nice writing table from that didn't look like a vintage office desk? Walmart!!! I was in Walmart randomly buying extra stuff that I didn't need (that store has that power over me) and I came across the Home department, and BOOM there she was, the MainStay Writing Table for the pretty price of $39!
Now I was on a mission, I then found the framed mirror to match my vision for only $10!  Now I had recently came upon an AWESOME deal at my local Dollar Tree store. They had Clip on table lamps there for a $1 of course. My first instinct "girl get 4" so I did just that. Great thing I did too, because after sharing my amazing find with my other makeup artist buddies they were all sold out when we went back to get more. 

Putting this table together was a breeze and the final look of it is really nice. After lugging everything home and setting it all up I was very pleased with my creation. Who would have thought I was able to find everything in only 2 stores (Walmart & DollarTree) and only spend a total of $60 (factoring in taxes)?

Remember my blueprint? The #1 thing was to stay in my budget. I was willing to spend at least $200 on this project, and only dropped a cool $60. That has left me with a larger budget for storage systems, the real beast of this setup.  Currently I have a medium 3 draw cart that fits perfectly under the table next to my printer, which I plan on moving to put another 3 draw cart there. And a large 4 draw cart on the side of the table, this cart has an acrylic 4 stair stand on top that houses my airbrush makeups neatly.

I'm still in the market for more storage, but as a new setup in my home I'm content for the moment. The table's draw has nice space, but needs a draw organizer that is no taller than an 1/2inch high. This way the draw will close with ease. I do have plans on actually mounting my mirror and the 2 lights attached to it on the wall to give me more table space, there's like 3 inches of space available behind the mirror that I could be using. I need every inch lol :)