Anatomy of a Project - The Dressing Table

Hello my lovelies!

First, some housekeeping.

For the quick read simply scan the pics and read the bits in bold. 

For the long haul read, grab yourself a cuppa and put your feet up!

I told you in a recent post that I had Projects coming out of my ears. And I just added another project to the list! A dressing table.

As background to this story, you need to know that by necessity we moved down to the guestroom last year. 

You can read the Safety reasons behind this move by reading this recent post HERE.  

By its nature, a guest bedroom doesn’t have much storage, and why should it?  It is said that guests are like fish, they begin to stink after a few days! 

Jokes aside, these past nine months or so we’ve been living in the space and analyzing what changes we need to make the space work for us.

The first move was to create a more usable en suite (see the link above).

As time has gone on, I’ve realized that it needs a dressing table area.

Now, this realization was quite a surprise to me as I’m not a dressing table person per se. 

I’ve had two dressing tables in my life, and neither of them in this house. In the 22 years I’ve lived in this house I’ve never found a slot for one.  It’s a cottage with the inherent quirky layout and limitation on space.  Over time I lost interest and stood at the bathroom vanity to do my magic.  That worked.

Now here’s the thing, old age. 

Putting on make up whilst standing up is now actually quite tiring.   Of late I have found myself collapsing in an armchair with my make up bag and a mirror.  So I decided to do something about it. 

I’m a great believer in the suck it and see approach before embarking on a full blown project. So we decided I could test drive the dressing table idea by simply fitting a plank between two old bedside cabinets, which aren’t actually by any bed whatsoever!

(The parked desk is destined for the summerhouse shortly)

This is not a thing of beauty but it gets me to find out what I want from a vanity space.

But of course, I’m like in a bull in a china shop when it comes to a whiff of a project so I need to get planning for something more permanent and definitely something more attractive! 

Yep, another project!

Like all good projects it starts with a trip to Pinterest to set up a mood board.

I quickly realized that whilst very glamorous, these spaces are far too big for what I need as if I wear make up maybe once a week.

I looked around my space and realized the best layout would be to fit a smaller dressing table in between a new wardrobe run, as this bedroom definitely needs more wardrobe space.

Like these. 

These are all very attractive solutions.

However, this thing popped up on my Pinterest search. A minuscule unit that seemed to have all that I required and in a very small neat space.

So I headed to Amazon and found this.

It has drawers, pull out shelving, and a pull out seat that has even more storage underneath, and a lit mirror. What more could a girl want any more?

It has a 600 mm width. (Note to self: I really do need to get serious with my measuring stick and start a solid plan.)

Amazon offered many other dressing table solutions of course and this one popped up quite often.

However, it is 80 mm wide, and that may reduce my space for my longed-for new wardrobes.

This is a more stylish solution version of the configuration above.

Again, it has an 80 mm span so. There is a danger that I might shoot by myself in the foot by getting a larger dressing table and then finding myself with no space for wardrobes!

One has to be pretty careful with Amazon however. Reading the small print some of the dressing units were reasonably price but with a pretty hefty postage price added, and from the reviews I see that they’re also pretty difficult to put together.

I don’t know if we’re in the right space to put ourselves through challenging self-assembly trauma!

Then, with my mind riveted on the challenges of assemblies of yore (and TP’s swearing!) I drifted logically to the royalty of self-assembly shopping, IKEA.

I should mention here that one of my issues is that the only place to put a dressing table would result in me sitting with my back to the nearby window, i.e. with no natural light on my visage. 

The space where the natural light is is fairly restrictive in that it has a radiator beneath the window, and is flanked by a chest of drawers and the only wardrobe in the room whose door opens out on the radiator space.

Well, look what a simple solution Ikea has come up with for this dilemma!  Simply putting a mirror on the window sill, adding a light and dragging a stool to the window, and hey presto you have your make up area with full natural light. Duh!

And that is what I did.

I then worked out I could simply swivel the existing armchair round to the light and use that, no dragging of chairs required. 

Life’s solutions can be so simple at times. 

So, dear reader, that’s where I am, on the precipice of yet another project. You can imagine how happy TP is about this.

And now it’s over to you. 

What’s your view on dressing tables? 

Do you even have one? 

Or are you one of these young whippersnappers who can still stand in the bathroom putting on make up without fatigue! 

I’d love to hear.

 Please don’t forget to leave a comment, and if you haven’t already subscribed then please please please do! 

A la perchoine,

Mary x