Downtown Stuodio Salon: Painting a Mirror Frame and Vanity

Here is my work station at my salon, Downtown Studio and (facebook page). I have shown pics of this place before and of my work, and yet the place is always changing. That is the beauty of having customized work stations as opposed to the matching built-ins that so many salons use. We have a penchant for vintage and diy, and our style is reflective of the combined personalities of our salon family and our guests. The salon owner, Candice, painted, glazed and distressed this desk herself. The mirror was quite small, so we exchanged this brass mirror for the larger size.

I mixed it a little paint with some clear glaze and gently dry brushed some more turquoise and purple on the mirror and added for purple to the desk for a uniform look. The corner details are the purple Martha Stewart glitter paint. I also painted a picture frame for holding a Brazilian Blowout certificate to match.

A few carefully selected storage items hold all I need for a functional, yet pretty corner. I decorated an acrylic business card holder with trim, vintage buttons and jewels, the faux book holds foils for highlighting hair, a vintage bottle holds fresh roses and my chevron bucket contains formula info and other notes. The purple mason tip jar is gussied up with some hanging prisms.

 Our salon is in a very old building in a Historic town square, that once sold clothes and work denim ceiling high, but we love the industrial charm of exposed pipes and amazing, stained cement floors.

By using vanities and furniture combed through searching on craigslist, facebook garage sale groups, and local thrift shops, we have connected a community through reusing beloved furniture pieces, while at the same time, creating a salon with a lot of character and a flexible budget. We have had more than one client come in here claiming that a piece of furniture once belong to them as a child or a loved one in their family whose furniture they hadn't seen in years, and were thrilled to be reunited again with it.

 This wall now boasts two amazing, rare, vintage light fixtures, and a birdcage for storage. I will have to post those soon!

 

This stylist brought her heirloom vanity and vintage chair from home.

People often mistake our salon for an antique shop, as our windows are ever changing, and there are many antique shops on our square. We will eventually install that amazing door as our sign, so people will really know from the street just who we are. This is a wonderful place to work and to visit as a client and I am going to miss it so much when I leave! But at least  have helped create a little footprint through the floors, chandelier, my dresser turned make-up station, furniture, hair and events we have worked on together :)