vanity overhaul...

Alright, so I've had several different "makeup vanity" set ups.. from sitting on the floor in front of a full length mirror, to countless plastic Sterilite five and six drawer carts, to finally, some variation of my current setup.  Over the past few years I've used a few different cheap writing desks, first from WalMart, then graduating to my current desk from Target.  Eventually, I tossed the plastic drawer carts for a black "wood" (cheap as crap MDF) 5 drawer cart.  While I was able to store more, it's still just not enough.. that's probably a very bad thing!!  So anyway, I thought I'd document and share my vanity transformation, my current situation, plans for the new setup and the fun bits in between! :) 

This post will be all about my current makeup vanity setup.  So this is what we've got goin' on.  Let's note that I didn't clean everything all up, this is just the way things are on a daily basis! ha! --

Okay, so you see I've got a basic writing desk, a few lamps, a two sided/lighted/magnified mirror, the 5 drawer cart, bench seat, and of course the "big" main mirror.  Here are some of the links --

Avington Desk from Target

Halifax 5-Drawer from WalMart 

Conair Round Mirror

Cortesi Kayla "X" Bench

I've had these two lamps for ages, I'm pretty sure their either from Target or Walmart.  On to some smaller details and my hangups --

Okay, here we have the jumble of hair products, perfumes, lotions and some jewelry on one side; and my janky solution for my curling wand "storage" on the other (which consists of a command hook and a knot in the curling wand cord.. I'm not proud of it.)  The cords over here really annoy me, it's all an eyesore and I'm not crazy about my trash can being there for all to see.  I don't really mind having the hair products, perfumes, jewelry and all that out on display, because it's easy to get to that way, but I do want a little more space to have things more spread out so it's not so cluttered.

As for the display trays, etc., I don't have any links to offer =/  I know I got the 3 tiered jewelry stand from UrbanOutfitters.com, but it's no longer available.  I'm thinking I ordered the perfume tray from amazon or Urban Outfitters as well.  The tin bucket and wrought iron stand are random finds from who knows where!

So this is my biggest gripe, and it's totally my fault.. The terrible eyesore in the middle of my desk where I spilled damn near a whole bottle of nail polish remover!  I did this literally like a week after I got the desk.. yeah, I was pissed.  So it's sat there annoying me day in and day out; yes, I could sand/paint the desktop or come up with some clever way to cover it all, but I have other ideas :)  Just a few details - a small square glass "vase" I got from dollar tree filled with q-tips and the old WalMart desk lamp.  For brushes I've got two glass (used to be) candles from Target that I've burned down and cleaned out, so they're basically small glass cups.  I also have one little brush holder that I use for eye-shadow brushes.

 Here I've got a random metal basket filled with eye-shadow palettes (due to lack of drawer storage).  I've also got a little clear acrylic set of 3 drawers with randoms and samples inside.  On top, I have two 3-wick candle glasses from Bath & Body Works that I've burned all the way down and cleaned out ...stocked full of lip products, again, due to lack of storage. Bleh..

Clear Acrylic Drawer Set

Lastly, here's a peek into my hot mess drawers.. I could SO do better to organize these things, I just gave up when more and more things started piling in with no room.  This is only three of my five drawers in my cart, and the top drawer of my desk.  Basically, I want to double my drawer space so I can spread out some of this junk and separate things a little better ( foundation/concealer drawer, blush/bronzer drawer, eye liner/brows/mascara drawer, etc. etc.)

Whew!  All in all, I want more makeup storage space, and a little nicer/classier set up ;)  Next post, I'll try to go into more detail of my plans for the new vanity, but my basic image is white and rose gold.  So I've got some Ikea hell to go through, some DIY projects and a few swap outs in the lamp/mirror department!  I'll get into all that next, thanks for reading! :D