Painted Textured Vanity

Well, this is the before picture.......

I know, awful. Although it would be easy to spend a bunch of money on this project, I would rather not. So I am counting on a lot of discount tile and paint to work their magic. I'm not after great; I'm after better.

Initially, I didn't think that I would have a problem with the architectural molding feature below the drawers, but now I am obsessing about it. At this point, I'm wondering why I chose to save this cabinet.

Finally, I am doing something about it. I picked up some molding from the lumber store, filled in the routed details on the doors, and glued the molding on. Now, the cabinetry has been upgraded to bland. So, I'm counting heavily on paint as my last option.

I would like to give the cabinet doors a little texture, so I am playing around with some samples.
 

My thinking is: if I can direct the eye with contrast and texture, the architectural element that I am obsessing about would not be so noticeable.
To create the texture, I mixed some of my top coat paint with a little whiting and applied this mixture with a sea sponge randomly on my sample piece (you can use a wood filler by itself or plaster too): let this dry; sand and seal; and paint your top coat on. Also, you can tint this textured paste as well; and when your top coat is dry, you can gently, sand back to add more dimension, which is how I finished off one of the samples. 

This is my finished set of samples. The white sample is.....too white. The sample with the most texture and contrast would be great on a piece of furniture with a cheetah throw. However, I do like the sample that I'm holding that has a hint of texture, but I do want to change the color from a taupe to gray.

 So here you have it: finished cabinet doors. They have been painted a warm gray, randomly textured, and a metallic-silver glaze was applied over the molding.

Finally, done (my family is saying that too, but with more feeling).  

I am beginning to like my bedroom a little more. Daisy is too.