{"id":139,"date":"2015-02-04T01:31:20","date_gmt":"2015-02-04T09:31:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/projects.swissninja.com\/?p=139"},"modified":"2016-06-02T13:16:49","modified_gmt":"2016-06-02T21:16:49","slug":"ellens-vanity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/projects.swissninja.com\/?p=139","title":{"rendered":"Ellen’s Vanity"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"IMG_1789\"<\/a>
fig 1: The completed project<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Christmas came and went, and I had a gift idea for a few friends, but not Ellen. \u00a0She just moved in to a house a few months ago that has a fairly old bathroom that she needs to share with her roommates. \u00a0I figured I’d dream up a shelf or cabinet she can keep in her room to store makeup and\/or jewelry items.<\/p>\n

While researching storage solutions online to incorporate into my design, “feature creep” set in, and things started to get out of hand. \u00a0This was going to be given as a gift, and my knowledge of cosmetics\/beauticianry is extremely limited, so I took a ‘shotgun’ approach and decided to incorporate as much as I could. \u00a0I wanted the design\u00a0to swing out from the wall, and then fold back away to save space. \u00a0I wanted to have a large mirror with the rows of bulbs on the sides for even lighting. \u00a0I wanted to have small shelves to hold small cosmetic items or jewelry. \u00a0I wanted to have a power outlet in it for a hairdryer or curling\/flat iron.<\/p>\n

\"Ellen<\/a>
fig 2: My evolving sketchup concept<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I made the whole frame out of 1\/2″ MDF, which in hindsight was a poor idea. \u00a0It doesn’t take paint well without a boatload of prep work, and it’s heavy as all get out. \u00a0I was terrified that the piano hinge wouldn’t hold the whole mess up, but it did.<\/p>\n

As a pack-rat, I’ve accumulated quite a few things from Ikea that I don’t use anymore, that I was able to incorporate into the vanity. \u00a0The magnifying mirror, the main mirror, and the top-down task lighting were all things that I already had laying around. \u00a0The mirror had to be pulled from its frame and cut down to size. \u00a0I was reminded all over again how much I hate, hate cutting glass.<\/p>\n

Wired up the dimmer to control the mirror lights, the switch to control the top task lights, and the outlet has continuous power.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1779\"<\/a>
fig 3: Monogram on display<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While constructing the vanity, I told Ellen to go to the store and pick out a primary color, and an accent color. \u00a0She chose sliver as the primary, with purple as the accent. \u00a0Painting the MDF with a metallic color was quite a process, but I was able to do it. \u00a0I cut a stencil with her initials in a fancy font, and applied it to the front of the vanity. \u00a0Looks pretty fancy.<\/p>\n

The vanity is fastened to the wall with four 1\/4″ lag bolts screwed into the studs. \u00a0When she moves out, the vanity can be taken down, and the holes should be small enough to fill easily. \u00a0 I had to be super-careful to make sure everything was level when installing, because the doors would open and close on their own if the vanity wasn’t plumb. \u00a0It’s easy making hinges swing easily with silicone spray or WD-40, but I don’t know if they sell anything in a can that makes hinges stick.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Lessons Learned: In the future, if I have someone pick out colors for a project, I’ll probably tell them that metallics are off limits. \u00a0I’ll also stick to plywoods for things that hang on the wall, since they weigh considerably less than MDF.<\/p>\n

\"20150201_174513\"<\/a>
fig 4: All loaded up<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christmas came and went, and I had a gift idea for a few friends, but not Ellen. \u00a0She just moved in to a house a few months ago that has a fairly old bathroom that she needs to share with her roommates. \u00a0I figured I’d dream up a shelf or cabinet she can keep in … Continue reading Ellen’s Vanity<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/projects.swissninja.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/projects.swissninja.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/projects.swissninja.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/projects.swissninja.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/projects.swissninja.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=139"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/projects.swissninja.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":198,"href":"http:\/\/projects.swissninja.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139\/revisions\/198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/projects.swissninja.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/projects.swissninja.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/projects.swissninja.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}