Mermaid Bathroom Vanity: Part Two

My vanity is all painted and sealed, so I’m moving on to the top. Marc used a biscuit joiner to build a counter out of pine boards, and I sanded and sanded (and sanded) it until it was buttery smooth.

I toyed with a lot of different ideas for the backsplash. I considered using the same fish scale tiles as in the shower, but I didn’t want to draw attention from the full wall of them. I tried making my own resin tiles and embedding gold euro coins in them for a pirate treasure from the bottom of the sea look. But in the end I decided that I wanted the backsplash to be part of the vanity itself. I made a couple of sample patterns from paper, and chose my favorite one; rounded like waves and gradually descending from the corner. I tracing the pattern onto a pine board, Marc cut it out, and I routed the edge so it is rounded.

I used the same stain (Ebony from Sherwin Williams) that I used on all the trim in the house. This way the bathroom counter blends right in.

The original plan was to use Peacock Blue Royal Stencil Creme to put a design in each corner. I tried it on a sample board first to be sure that the colors worked, and also to test the sealant (from WaterLox) and the stencil creme together.

Next I made so swirly stencils with my Cricut. It took forever to pick out all the tiny pieces out and get them smoothed down in the corners. But OOPS! I forgot that the backsplash boards would take almost an inch off the back and right side, so I had placed my one-time-use adhesive stencils in the wrong spots (well one out of four was in the right place). After peeling them up, I didn’t want to go through the process of making them again, so I went with a simpler Art Nouveau leaf design. I didn’t fancy blue leaves, so I switched to my trusty Smoked Oyster Stencil Creme.

I’m very happy with how these stencils turned out. They remind me of a plant that grows along the Oregon Coast- my best guess from guidebooks is False Lily of the Valley. When I was little I called it Van Gogh plant, because the swirls reminded me of the paintings (yes, I have been told I was a weird child). This plant grew profusely around the restroom building at Heceta Head Park, when I spent a lot of time as a kid (at the park, not the bathroom). So oddly enough, the leaves in my stencils remind me of both the beach and of bathrooms, so I guess they were meant to be in my Mermaid Bath.